New Road Bridge (SPC8 27)

New Road Bridge is a single-span skew overbridge built between 1836 and 1840 for the North Midland Railway, designed by George and Robert Stephenson along with Frederick Swanwick.

The bridge is constructed from coursed and squared Coal Measure sandstone, featuring tooled ashlared Derbyshire gritstone dressings. The soffit of the arch is made of skew-set red brick laid in English bond.

The single segmental arch follows the standard dimensions of the Stephenson's North Midland overbridges, with a span of 30 feet and originally a height of 16 feet. It has v-channelled, rusticated voussoirs that spring from impost bands and extend into the spandrels. The inner side of the bridge showcases coursed quarry-faced sandstone, a chamfered plinth, and gritstone impost bands with a course of diagonal set springers leading to the skew-set red brick soffit. The abutments, faced with coursed quarry-faced sandstone and featuring ashlar quoins, rest on a chamfered plinth and are angled out to meet the flanking piers under a pitched coping. The projecting piers have a concave rake and quoins.

Above the arch, there is a gritstone cornice that consists of a narrow ashlar course, a bold roll moulding, and a broad ashlar course with a chamfered top edge. This cornice forms the first course of the parapet, which includes a deep course of picked stone with tooled margins. On the inner (road) side, the parapets consist of a half course and one giant course of sandstone, rusticated and v-jointed with a picked surface. The square-moulded gritstone coping stones are tooled and slightly sloped to the outside edge.