Ripley Road Bridge (SPC8 45)

Ripley Road Bridge is a Grade II listed structure made of coursed and squared, quarry-faced Derbyshire gritstone, featuring ashlar dressings, red-brick soffit linings, and wrought-iron and steel girders. The bridge consists of four spans, with a skew arch crossing the former turnpike road, now the A610, and three square-set arches that span the south bank of the River Amber, the river itself, and its north bank.

The masonry walling of the bridge is constructed from quarry-faced, coursed squared gritstone, supporting tooled and chamfered ashlar impost bands. The arches are made of v-jointed, rusticated ashlar voussoirs, which return as quoins to the brick soffit linings. Flanking the arches are later girders placed on masonry extensions of the original bridge piers and abutments. These extensions are designed to match the appearance of the original stonework and connect to the earlier masonry with straight joints.

The wide, original south pier is detailed to accommodate the angle between the skew arch and the adjacent square-set arch, with two additional slender piers added around 1875-1876. On each side of the bridge, the extensions support a riveted, wrought-iron and steel girder deck, complete with steel railings. The bottom edges of the girders extend across the original arch faces, while the inside faces of the original abutments, piers, arch soffits, and parts of the spandrels remain visible. The stonework features quarry-faced squared and coursed gritstone, with tooled ashlar impost bands and V-jointed rusticated ashlar voussoirs, also tooled, returning as quoins on the soffit lined with patched red brick.

It is noted that the 20th-century metal decking is not considered to have special architectural or historic interest.