The Iron Bridge At Culford School

The Iron Bridge at Culford School is a park bridge built around 1803 by Samuel Wyatt for the 2nd Marquis Cornwallis. It features a cast-iron single span supported by granite abutments and cast-iron side plates. The bridge has a composition stone balustrade and is adorned with marble urns. Its design closely follows a bridge patented by Wyatt in 1800. The span springs from channelled granite abutments and consists of five tubular cast-iron sections, repeated six times beneath the span. These sections are kept rigid by transverse plates and ribs at the top, with the plates featuring open ovals in the centers. Solid plates extend above the outer ribs to form the roadway's exterior. The balustrade above includes solid piers at intervals and square-sectioned moulded balusters, with carved marble urns at both ends. This bridge is particularly significant as one of the earliest surviving bridges with an unmodified cast-iron structure, the earliest known example with hollow ribs, and closely aligns with a patented design by an important architect.