Railway Bridge

CARLYON

868/0/10202 CYPRESS AVENUE 10-DEC-09 RAILWAY BRIDGE

II DESCRIPTION: Railway accommodation bridge, built 1854-55, constructed of granite ashlar in a simple Gothic style. A wide four-centred arch carries the railway line over the road. Both the north and south faces of the bridge are similar, with a plain parapet topped by tapered coping stones. To either side of the arch are hexagonal turrets above projecting piers each with a tapered plinth and a string course, linked by machicolation-style decoration above the arch. The abutment returns are ramped in four steps with dressed granite copings.

HISTORY: The railway bridge forms part of the Cornwall Railway, built following an Act of Parliament in 1846. The railway was formally opened in May 1859. The Cypress Avenue bridge was built 1854-55 by Sharpe and Sons to a design produced by I.K. Brunel's office at 18 Duke Street, London. It stands on the Tregrehan Estate and was constructed as an accommodation bridge for the Carlyon family. At the time the bridge was constructed, Colonel Edward Carlyon was actively engaged in refurbishment of the house and landscape, employing the architect George Wightwick from 1842 for the house and the noted garden architect William Nesfield in 1845. Col Carlyon was a major shareholder in the Cornwall Railway and was offered a choice between an "ordinary bridge" and £250 towards the "new road" or an "ornamental bridge" and £201.12.0 towards the road. The additional cost of the ornamentation was therefore a little under £50. Cornwall Railway remained an independent company within the broad-gauge consortium of the Associated Companies until 1889 when it was absorbed within the Great Western Railway. The bridge remains part of the London to Penzance mainline, located between the stations of Par and St Austell.

SOURCES: R.J. Woodfin, The Cornwall Railway. (Truro 1972). Cornwall Record Office CN 2737

REASON FOR DESIGNATION: This railway accommodation bridge at Cypress Avenue is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons: * Architecture: a good example of an ornamental accommodation bridge constructed to a design by the engineer and architect Isambard Kingdom Brunel, widely perceived to be one of the most important transport engineers of the C19 * Historic: built for one of the railway company's major shareholders and good documentation relating to its construction survives * Group Value: its Gothic detailing reflects its proximity to the Tregrehan Estate, under improvement at the time the bridge was built