Potters Bridge (SPC8 52)

Potters Bridge is a single-span accommodation underbridge built around 1836 to 1840 for the North Midland Railway, designed by George and Robert Stephenson with their Assistant Engineer Frederick Swanwick.

The bridge is constructed from coursed and squared, quarry-faced Derbyshire gritstone, featuring tooled ashlar dressings and red-brick soffit linings. It has a single-span, segmental arch made of V-jointed rusticated ashlar voussoirs, with a prominent projecting keystone. The voussoirs continue as quoins to the brick soffit linings of the arch. The arch springs from ashlar impost bands that extend into the slightly raked inner faces of the masonry abutment walls. Curved and splayed masonry flanking walls are present beyond the bridge abutments. Above the arch, there is a bold ashlar roll that extends into the flanking walls as a coping course. The bridge parapets consist of a single course of tooled ashlar blocks, which extend a short distance into the flanking walls. In the 20th century, steel railings were added to the parapet walling. Both sides of the bridge are similarly detailed.