Mansfield Road Bridge (SPC8 6)

A three-span stone overbridge carrying the Mansfield Road, built 1836-40 for the North Midland Railway to the designs of George and Robert Stephenson with Frederick Swanwick, and altered in 1891.

MATERIALS: coursed and squared Coal Measure sandstone with ashlar Derbyshire Gritstone dressings. The dressings are tooled. The soffits of the arches are of red brick.

DESCRIPTION: the high-mileage (north) face is a mirror image of the low-mileage (south) face. The central arch conforms to the standard dimensions of the Stephensons’ North Midland overbridges, with a span of 30ft and, originally, a height of 16ft. The outer arches span 25ft. All three are segmental arches with v-channelled, rusticated ashlar voussoirs springing from impost bands that continue onto the underside of the bridge. Beneath the impost bands the abutments are faced with coursed and squared quarry-faced stone, with rusticated ashlar quoins and plinths. The arch soffits are of red brick. Flanking the three arches, the splayed wing walls step out and are raked and concave with quoins, terminating in piers. The v-channelled and rusticated parapet builds up from a cornice composed of a narrow ashlar course, a bold roll mould, then a course of ashlar with a chamfered upper edge, all of which are tooled. Above are two large courses of picked stone with tooled margins. The coping stones are broad, tooled and square-moulded, with a slight fall to the outside edge. On their inside faces the parapets are two and half courses with punched surfaces. A loose stone wall has been built up against the pier and abutment on the down (west) side.

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the tarmacadam road surface of the bridge is not of special architectural or historic interest.