Amber Mill Bridge (SPC8 61)

A single-span skew underbridge, crossing Shirland Road, constructed c.1836-40 for the North Midland Railway, to the designs of George and Robert Stephenson with Frederick Swanwick

MATERIALS: the bridge is constructed of coursed, squared, quarry-faced Derbyshire gritstone with ashlar dressings and red brick soffit laid in English bond.

DESCRIPTION: the bridge comprises a single, segmental arch formed of rusticated, V-jointed, tooled voussoirs, which serve as quoins to the soffit. The arch soffit is of skew-set red brick, springing from a serrated sandstone course laid along the top of each impost band. Below, the walling is of coursed, squared, quarry-faced stone. The impost bands are tooled with drip grooves along the lower edges and return onto the abutments, terminating at the wing walls. These are raked and splayed to meet the abutments at an angle above the impost band, and merge in a curve below. A bold roll moulding, with a tooled finish, runs above the arch and continues along the wing walls, terminating at either end at low octagonal stone piers. A shallow ashlar parapet is surmounted by C20 steel railings.