The Iron Bridge At Culford School

CULFORD TL 87 SW CULFORD PARK

181- /1/10004 The Iron Bridge at Culford School

GV I

Park bridge. c.1803 by Samuel Wyatt for 2nd Marquis Cornwallis. Cast-iron single span with granite abutments and cast-iron side plates. Composition stone balustrade and marble urns. Design closely based on a bridge patented by Wyatt in 1800. Springing from channelled granite abutments five tubular cast-iron sections form the span. These are repeated six times under the span and kept rigid by transverse plates and ribs at the top, the plates having open ovals at the centres. Solid plates continue above the outer ribs forming the outside to the roadway. Above this is the balustrade with solid piers at intervals and square-sectioned moulded balusters. Carved marble urns at the ends. This bridge is of exceptional interest as one of the earliest bridges with an unmodified cast-iron structure to survive, the earliest known example with hollow ribs, and one close to a patented design by an important architect. (Repertory of Arts and Manufactures: Vol.14 (1801), p145-9).

Listing NGR: TL8279970401