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

The Banbury Lane bridge, believed to have been built between 1848 and 1850, is a road over-bridge that spans the railway line to the north of King's Sutton. It is oriented from north-west to south-east and features a shallow S-shaped structure formed by the bridge and its embanked approaches.

The bridge is constructed from cast-iron girders, with additional support from 20th-century steel girders and concrete infill. It is made of red brick with ashlar stone dressings, and includes brick parapet walls topped with cast-iron balustrading, which is covered with 20th-century corrugated metal cladding on the central span.

Architecturally, the bridge consists of two semi-elliptical, skew-arched approach sections and a central flat deck that spans the railway line at an angle, supported by cast-iron girders. These girders have an inverted-T section with a rectangular bulb-shaped upper flange, representing a significant development in the design of cast-iron beams as envisioned by Brunel. Originally, the girders supported a wooden deck, but they have since been encased in concrete and reinforced with three 20th-century steel girders placed between each pair of cast-iron girders.

The bridge features cast-iron face beams that support bolted sections of a cast-iron arcaded parapet, which is now lined with 20th-century corrugated sheeting on the inner faces, extending above the original parapet rail. Each end of the bridge deck is supported by deep, triple-arched brick piers, while deep splayed abutments enclose the approach embankments. The base of the parapet walls is marked by double string courses, topped with deep ashlar copings. The parapet walls also have plain terminal piers with ashlar caps. Some sections of the brick parapet walling and parts of the main piers have been repaired using modern red facing bricks.