Railway bridge and lodge, 80m north-west of Lodge Copse

Railway bridge and a pair of attached lodges. 1838-1839 by Isambard Kingdom Brunel for the Bristol and Exeter Railway and the Nynehead Court estate respectively.

MATERIALS The structures are built of green sandstone ashlar, stone rubble and brick.

PLAN The bridge is orientated north-west to south-east crossing a former drive to Nynehead Court and has short wing walls on either side. The lodges on the south-east side of the bridge flank the archway. The left-hand one has an L-shaped plan with a polygonal front, the other comprises only of a polygonal façade.

DESCRIPTION The BRIDGE carries the mainline GWR over the former driveway and has a single-span, semi-elliptical arch with a simple and bold string course, large projecting voussoirs and a keystone, and a moulded cornice. On either side are low parapets of brick and stone coping, and steel railings. The intrados of the arch is built of brick. Flanking the arch on the north-west elevation are quadrant walls and large square piers, and there are also attached wing or retaining walls of red brick and stone coping that terminate with short ashlar piers.

To either side of the arch on the south-east side of the bridge is an attached single-storey LODGE; the one to the right is a pastiche. There is a continuous moulded cornice and a parapet, although missing in places, which extend across the lodges and the railway bridge. The left-hand lodge, which was a dwelling until the mid-C20, is built of coursed rubble stone and brick, with an ashlar facing to the principal (south-east) elevation. The roof is not extant. It has a three-bay angled front which has a central entrance and a window to either side, all have finely-moulded stone architrave. The door, window frames and glazing are not extant. An open passageway on the south-west side of the building provides access to a side entrance to the lodge and also to an attached rear range. The interior of the main part of the lodge is divided into four rooms approximately of equal size and there is a large central stack that provided heat to each room. It retains brick fireplaces with segmental heads but no surrounds. No doors, windows or other features remain in the building. The rear range was originally two storeys, and is a roofless ruin with no upper floor. At ground level in its south-east wall is a fireplace or a flue under a segmental stone head.

The other lodge, to the right of the arch of the railway bridge, presents as a mirror image, but consists of nothing more than an angled ashlar façade of three bays. The door and window openings are identical to those in the lodge itself, but the door and windows are missing. Breaking forwards of each lodge is a brick wing wall which terminates with an ashlar pier surmounted by a shallow pyramidal cap.