Brusselton Accommodation Bridge

Summary

Accommodation bridge built by the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1832-1833 for the benefit of the local landowner to provide access between land divided by the western Brusselton incline without the need to use the public Brusselton Lane immediately to the east.

Reasons for Designation

Brusselton Accommodation Bridge is included on the List at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:
* as a well-preserved early railway bridge built 1832-1833 and thus set within the international pioneering phase of the development of railway technology;

* for its simple but well-detailed design, an illustration of the Quaker-influenced ethos of the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

Historic interest:
* although not built for the opening of the line in 1825 (and thus later than Hummer Beck Bridge), Brusselton Accommodation Bridge is a marker of the early financial success of the Stockton & Darlington Railway, possibly prompted by the increase in traffic following the opening of the 1830 Haggerleases branch line.

History

Acts of Parliament passed in 1821 and 1823 granted the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) powers to compulsorily purchase the land required to build its railway, but also placed several obligations on the company. One of these obligations was the requirement to provide crossing points for landowners whose land was divided by the line. Level crossings were the cheapest solution: the expense of building accommodation bridges (where level crossings were impractical because the line was carried on an embankment or in a cutting) placed a considerable strain on company finances before the railway opened for business in 1825.

The S&DR proved financially successful, with traffic carried on the line being much higher than originally planned for. The volume of traffic using the Brusselton inclines increased significantly with the opening of the Haggerleases branch line in 1830. This may have prompted the construction of two accommodation bridges for the benefit of Sir Christopher Musgrave whose land was divided by the western Brusselton incline, presumably replacing or supplementing earlier level crossings that were becoming difficult to use.

S&DR company records dated August and September 1832 record the commissioning of these bridges for Sir Christopher, designed by Thomas Storey and built by John Carter, with accounts dated 2 August 1833 recording the payments for labour and materials. The accommodation bridge that is the subject of this listing, just west of Brusselton Lane, is identified as one of these two bridges built in 1832-1833. The second bridge was just over 1km to the west, around 0.3km east of Bankfoot Farm, the bottom of the incline, but was lost to opencast coal extraction in the C20.

The design of Brusselton Accommodation Bridge differs from the 1825 bridges on the line attributed to George Stephenson, the best surviving example being Hummer Beck Bridge 1.8km to the west. Brusselton Accommodation Bridge was built just 10m from Stephenson’s bridge that took the incline over Brusselton Lane – this demonstrating the S&DR’s need to accommodate adjacent landowners under the terms of its enabling Acts. The Brusselton Lane bridge was demolished in the 1950s to allow for road improvements.

Details

Railway accommodation bridge, 1832-1833, designed by Thomas Storey, built by John Carter for the Stockton & Darlington Railway.

MATERIALS: ashlar sandstone.

PLAN: single span carrying the former railway line over a trackway.

EXTERIOR: the bridge has a round arch of voussoirs that are cut to fit in with the coursing of the ashlar stonework of the spandrel walls. The bridge parapet spans between square end piers that also terminate the sloping wing walls that retain the sides of the embankment. The piers and parapets have a simple string course to the base, and along with the wing walls, are stone coped. Adjacent to the north east wing wall there is a flight of stone steps up the side of the embankment. 

NOTE: the bridge also forms part of the Scheduled Monument 'Stockton & Darlington Railway: Brusselton Inclines'.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:

112206

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Other
Minutes 24 Aug, 4 Sept, 21 Sept 1832, S&DR Sub-Committee Minute Book 1831-1834. (National Archives RAIL 667/32)
Entry for 21 Sept 1832 in the Report Book of Thomas Storey 1830-1834 (National Archives RAIL 667/418)
Entry for 2 Aug 1833 in S&DR Railway Committee, with abstracts of accounts 1821-1836 (National Archives RAIL 667/8)
Correspondence from the Friends of the Stockton & Darlington Railway

End of official list entry

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