Railway Bridge DCL 68 Banbury Lane, King's Sutton, Northants.

The Banbury Lane bridge, thought to date to 1848-50, is a road over-bridge spanning the railway line to the north of Kings Sutton, and is aligned north-west to south-east. The bridge and its embanked approaches together form a shallow S-shaped structure.

Materials: Cast-iron girders supplemented by C20 steel girders and concrete infill. Red brick with ashlar stone dressings, with brick parapet walling and cast-iron balustrading with C20 corrugated metal cladding to the central span.

Exterior: The bridge comprises two semi-elliptical, skew-arched approach sections and a central flat deck, spanning the line on the skew, supported by cast-iron girders. These are of an inverted-T section, with a rectangular bulb-shaped upper flange, a design which is thought to mark an important final stage in the development of what Brunel considered to be the ideal section for cast-iron beams. They originally supported a wooden deck, but are now encased in concrete and supplemented by C20 steel girders, three of which are located between each pair of cast-iron girders. Cast-iron face beams support bolted sections of cast-iron arcaded parapet, now clad on their inner faces with C20 corrugated sheeting which extends above the original parapet rail. Deep, triple-arched brick piers support each end of the bridge deck, and deep splayed abutments enclose the approach embankments. There are double string courses at the base of the parapet walls, which are capped with deep ashlar copings. The parapet walls have plain terminal piers with ashlar caps. The brick parapet walling and parts of the main piers have been repaired in modern red facing bricks.