Gibfield Lane Bridge Over Railway

This is a single-span skew overbridge, carrying Gibfield Lane over a railway line, along with an attached section of masonry walling that lines the east side of the cutting through which the railway passes. The bridge was designed by A.M Ross for the North Midland Railway. The railway itself was surveyed in 1835 and constructed between approximately 1836 and 1840, based on designs by George and Robert Stephenson, with Frederick Swanwick.

The bridge and cutting walls are built from coursed, squared, quarry-faced Derbyshire gritstone with ashlar dressings. The interior of the bridge arch is lined with red brick laid in English bond.

The bridge features a single segmental arch formed from rusticated, V-jointed, tooled voussoirs that serve as quoins for the arch soffit and extend to the quoined raking abutments. The arch soffit is of skew-set red brick springing from a serrated sandstone course laid along the top of each impost band. Below this, the walling is of coursed, squared, quarry-faced stone. Above the arch is a deep, tooled roll moulding that supports the bridge parapets, which are formed from a single course of large ashlar panels capped with wide, gently sloping copings. The roll moulding continues onto the masonry walling along the east side of the cutting. This walling is of concave section and linear in form, extending approximately 215 metres southwards from the southeast corner of the bridge to the Derby Road Bridge. The cutting wall is uniformly curved and rises from two deep projecting stone plinth courses. It features five broad projecting pilasters, delineating the five bays of walling that make up two-thirds of its total length. The first one and a half bays extend to bridge parapet level, then ramp downward in two steps over the next half bay. On top of the roll moulding in the first two bays are additional lengths of coursed masonry walling, forming the garden wall of the house located above the cutting, close to the southeast end of the bridge. Bays 3, 4, and 5 continue southwards at half full-height level, maintaining that height for a further 20 metres, before ending at low level at the Derby Road Bridge.