Railway Bridge

Details

SLOUGH

236/0/10023 ST MARY'S ROAD 13-APR-06 Langley St Mary Railway Bridge

II Railway bridge, 1836-8, with 1874-78 and 1914 additions; Isambard Kingdom Brunel.

MATERIALS: The 1836-8 semi-elliptical arch and that of 1878 are of London stock brick with white hydraulic mortar, on limestone imposts, with brick string courses, and dressed gritstone copings. The original span and southern abutment retain their original parapets, approaches, gritstone copings and terminal pilasters. There has been some limited cementacious repointing. A raking buttress stands to either side of the pier between the original arched span and that of 1878. These buttresses retain fabric from Brunel's northern abutment and reflect its angle.

FAÇADE: The St. Mary's Road bridge was built in 1836-8 as a London stock brick 18ft wide overbridge for minor public roads. It originally had gently-splayed abutments at each end flanking a 30ft-span semi-elliptical arch accommodating two broad-gauge tracks (subsequently two mixed broad-/standard-gauge tracks from 1861 until the abolition of broad gauge in 1892). In 1878 during the Southall-Slough quadrupling the northern abutment was largely demolished and the bridge was extended to its north with a matching (and slightly skewed) 25ft arched extension. In 1914 during the creation of the Langley-Dolphin (Slough) loop the bridge was extended north again with a skewed 19ft 9ins-span single line, steel girder span. The accompanying new northern abutment has steeply-angled wing walls.

HISTORY: In March 1832 the Bristol Railway company was set up to construct a 118-mile long railway line from London to Bristol. Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59), the 26 year-old son of the leading civil engineer Sir Marc Isambard Brunel (1769-1849) who was already well-regarded in Bristol because of his work on the Clifton Bridge and the City Docks, was appointed the company engineer of what was renamed the Great Western Railway. For the next fifteen years he devoted much of his energy to creating what he intended to be 'the Finest Work in England' (Rolt 1957, 171), an unprecedented service of high-speed passenger transport linking London with south-west England. The main line from London to Bristol was constructed in 1835-41 in eight separate sections using a variety of contractors and some direct labour. The first section to be opened was that from Bishop's Road, London, to Maidenhead Riverside, in the summer of 1838. The whole line, from London Paddington to Bristol Temple Meads was opened in July 1841. Thereafter extensions followed to Exeter, Plymouth, and Penzance; as the South Wales Railway to Cardiff, Swansea, and Milford Haven; and northward to Gloucester, Oxford, and the Mersey.

Brunel oversaw all aspects of the GWR concept and design which was distinctive and comprehensive: the choice of route, which by careful survey and grading was relatively level and with gentle curves; the adoption of a 'broad gauge' of 7 feet 0 ¼ inch rather than the usual 'narrow gauge' of 4 feet 8 ½ inches to give stability at speed; and the carriage of the line via both showpiece engineering structures (perhaps in-part inspired by John Martin's 'apocalyptic sublime' paintings of the ancient world: Freeman 1999, 74-5) including viaducts at Hanwell and Chippenham, the Box Tunnel, and iron and masonry bridges and more prosaic ones such as the nine bridges under consideration.

Archival study by Dr. Brindle has ascertained that the St. Mary's Road bridge formed part of Brunel's contracts 4 L[ondon] and 5L and, like other bridges included therein, was erected between the spring of 1836 and May 1838 when the Paddington-Maidenhead line opened.

SUMMARY OF IMPORTANCE: The St. Mary's Road bridge is a good example of a Brunel overbridge from the first phase of the Great Western Railway's construction, 1836-38. Despite later extensions and the loss of its north buttress, over two-thirds of the Brunel fabric survives, including its parapets, and this is the reason for its designation. It is of considerable historic significance for this early Brunel fabric.

SOURCES: S. Brindle, Paddington Station (2005); R. Angus Buchanan, 'Brunel, Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004); M. Freeman, Railways and the Victorian Imagination (1999); L. T. C. Rolt, Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1957); RPS Planning & Environment, Crossrail: Technical Assessment of Historic Railway Bridges (January 2005); Developing Crossrail: Round 2 Consultation Document August to October 2004

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

494862

Legacy System:

LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Freeman, M, Railways and the Victorian Imagination, (1999)
Rolt, L T C, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, (1957)
Brindle, S, Paddington Station: Its History and Architecture, (2005)
Buchanan, R, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography in Brunel, Isambard Kingdom (1806-1859), (2004)

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