Bridge Number 438 (Belvedere Bridge)

SJ 51 SW SJ 5194 1253 UFFINGTON C.P. -

3/68 Bridge No.438 3/4/85 (Belvidere Bridge) (that part in Uffington C.P.)

• II*

Railway bridge. Dated 1848, William Baker engineer; restored and slightly altered in 1984. Chamfered rusticated grey sandstone ashlar piers, engineering brick retaining walls and end piers with ashlar dressings, and painted cast iron arches and decking. 2 segmental skew arches, each consisting of 6 cast ribs with lattice spandrels; central pier with rounded rock-faced cutwater; coped curved retaining walls and square end piers with rock-faced ashlar quoins and stone caps; late C20 balustrade replacing 1848 one. Maker's plate on eastern arch to south: "CAST AT COALBROOKDALE FOUNDRY 1848"; shield-shaped plaques on central pier to south: "WILLIAM BAKER ESQ/ENGINEER/1848", and to north: "HAMMOND AND MURRAY/CONTRACTOR/1848". There are also datestones on the railway side of the parapets to the central pier. Each of the ribs is made up from short cast sections bolted together. The Shrewsbury to Oakengates section of the Shrewsbury and Birmingham Railway was opened on June 1st, 1849 and the whole of the line to Wolverhampton on November 12th of the same year. The original estimate for the bridge was £80,000, and it was formerly numbered 4 on the Shrewsbury-Wellington Line. The bridge spans the River Severn. Rex Christiansen, A Regional History of the Railways of Great Britain, Vol.7 The West Midlands, David and Charles (1983), Pp.80-95; Richard K. Morriss, Railways of Shropshire: a brief history, Shropshire Libraries (1983), Pp.17-23 and p.72 (i11.); Shropshire Railway Society, Shropshire Railways Revisited, Shropshire Libraries (1982), i11.26.

Listing NGR: SJ5194812526