Derwent Viaduct (SPC8 42)

A five-span skew arched viaduct built in 1836-40 for the North Midland Railway to the designs of George and Robert Stephenson with Frederick Swanwick.

MATERIALS: coursed quarry-faced Derbyshire gritstone with ashlar dressings and red brick soffits laid in English bond. Girders of riveted steel.

EXTERIOR: the viaduct spans the Derby Road (A6) and the River Derwent. It has five broad skewed segmental arches on tall piers. From the south to the north end, it consists of one span over land, two spans over the River Derwent, and two spans over the A6. The east elevation has v-channelled stepped voussoirs that return as quoins on the soffits, and have slightly projecting dropped keystones. The arches spring from chamfered impost bands of picked stone with dressed margins that continue around the inside faces and which have integrated diagonally set springers. The soffits are constructed of skew-set red brick. The spandrels, piers and buttresses are faced with coursed quarry-faced stone laid in diminishing courses. The piers have a band dressed in the same way as the impost bands, and the pointed cutwaters are capped by a rounded ashlar prow. The viaduct has a boldly projecting moulded cornice and a low, ashlar parapet surmounted by C20, steel railings. At the north end this continues along a wing wall that steps out with quoins and follows the line of the railway.

The west face is the same except for the alterations that were made in 1930-31 to accommodate a new track diverging at the north end. A steel plate girder was added across the two northern-most arches involving the extension of two piers and the abutment to support it. The extensions are faced with coursed, quarry faced gritstone, and are skewed.