Clay Cross Tunnel South Portal (SPC8 68P1)

The Clay Cross Tunnel South Portal is a tunnel entrance built between 1836 and 1839 for the North Midland Railway, designed by George and Robert Stephenson, with assistance from Engineer Frederick Swanwick.

It is constructed from coursed, squared, quarry-faced Derbyshire gritstone, featuring moulded and tooled ashlar gritstone dressings. The portal has a horseshoe-shaped arch set within a masonry surround. The arch consists of two ashlar bands with a roll moulding profile and an additional ashlar band above the arch's outer curve. Broad, raking rusticated masonry buttresses flank the portal, leading to extensive quarry-faced masonry retaining walls. The entire structure is topped with an ashlar band course that has a bold roll moulding above it, along with a low ashlar parapet that serves as a cornice at the top of the portal façade.