Strutts Bridge (SPC8 23)

A single-span, stone overbridge built 1836-40 for the North Midland Railway to the designs of George and Robert Stephenson with Frederick Swanwick.

MATERIALS: coursed and squared Coal Measure Sandstone with ashlar Derbyshire Gritstone dressings. The soffit of the arch is of skew-set red brick.

DESCRIPTION: the two faces of the bridge are essentially identical. The single, segmental arch conforms to the standard dimensions of the Stephensons’ North Midland overbridges, with a span of 30ft and, originally, a height of 16ft. It has V-chanelled, rusticated gritstone ashlar voussoirs, which spring from impost bands. These impost bands continue into the underside of the bridge. Beneath them the abutments are faced with coursed and squared quarry-faced sandstone with ashlar gritstone quoins, and a plinth with a chamfered top edge. The arch is framed by wing walls, which have a concave rake and curve gently. They are faced in squared and coursed quarry-faced sandstone and terminate in half octagonal piers. The roadway is steeply inclined and this is demarked on the bridge faces by the angle of the bold roll moulding and the parapets which rise from the up (east) side to the down (west) sides. The parapets consist of three courses of squared and coursed quarry-faced stone surmounted by broad, tooled and square-moulded coping stones, with a slight fall to the outside edge. Fixed to the top of the parapets is a modern, steel hand rail. The inner faces of the parapets increase from one and half courses on the down (west) side to two and a half on the up (east) side.

Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’) it is declared that the steel hand rails fixed to the top of the parapets of the bridge are not of special architectural or historic interest.