Skew Bridge And Associated Cantilevered Walkway Immediately To The West Of Bath Spa Station

Railway bridge built in 1840 to the designs of Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Great Western Railway. It was substantially rebuilt in 1878 by Wakefield Simpson, district engineer, and strengthened in the 1960s by British Rail.

The remains of the 1840 bridge consist of a central stone pier and the lower stone courses of the abutments. The 1878 replacement bridge is constructed from steel, cast and wrought iron, with wrought-iron lattice girders and brick walling to the upper stages of the abutments. In the 1960s a steel superstructure was added to carry the platform extensions of the adjacent station and additional steel supports were added between the tracks.

The bridge consists of two spans of 24.38 metres, skewed at an angle of 28 degrees. Beneath the western arch, the towpath of the Avon Navigation is carried on a cantilevered iron walkway with semi-circular cast-iron railings running for a distance of 31.5 metres. The walkway dates from the original construction of the bridge in 1840, whereas the railings are believed to have been installed to coincide with the opening of the replacement wrought-iron bridge in 1878.

Brunel's original 1840 design comprised two segmental arches of 27 metres square, skewed at 28 degrees, composed of six parallel laminated timber ribs on stone piers, with horizontal iron ties at springing level. The spandrels had cast-iron Gothic arched vertical struts supporting a wooden latticed parapet. This was the only bridge of this type on the Great Western Railway. To accommodate the abutment pier on the western side, the existing line of the towpath was re-aligned and carried on a cast-iron walkway cantilevered over the Avon.

The bridge forms part of Brunel's legacy of significant railway engineering structures through Bath, which includes retaining walls and bridges in Sydney Gardens, Bath Spa Railway Station, St James's Bridge and Twerton Viaduct. When the Great Western Railway was constructed through Bath, it skirted the city to the south in a long curve, crossing the river in two places, with the station set between Skew Bridge and St James's Bridge, just 250 metres apart.