Disused Railway Bridge

Summary

Railway over road bridge of 1849-50 by Robert Benson Dockray.

Reasons for Designation

* Architectural Interest: The bridge of 1849-50 is relatively early and its double arch design is rare.
* Historic Interest: The opening of the Rugby to Stamford branch line in 1850 was part of the enormous expansion of the railway network which took place between 1841 and 1850.
* Historic Association: The bridge of 1849-50 is by Robert Benson Dockray, an engineer of national note, working under Robert Stephenson for the LNER, then the largest and most important railway company in the world.
* Group Value: The bridge stands central to a number of other nationally designated assets in the immediate vicinity, notably, All Saints Church, listed at Grade I, and Thorpe Lubenham Moat and Shifted Medieval Settlement, both scheduled monuments.

History

In 1846, the London and Birmingham, the Manchester and Birmingham, and the Grand Junction railway companies amalgamated to form the London and North Western Railway Company (L & NWR). It was the largest joint-stock company in the world and the operator of 672km of line in the UK. The line between Rugby and Market Harborough was opened in 1850. Originally this was a single track, but the route was upgraded to dual track in 1878. It was closed on 6 June 1966 as part of the Beeching consolidation. Farndon Road bridge, Lubenham was constructed for the line between Rugby and Market Harborough.

Details

MATERIALS: Red brick laid in English bond and with limestone bedding courses.

PLAN: The bridge supports a former railway track bed running east-west and has two segmental arches, the western one over Farndon Road and the eastern one over an excavated unpaved roadway to allow a greater vertical clearance for high-sided vehicles.

EXTERIOR: The north and south elevations of the bridge are identical and consist of two segmental arches springing from chamfered stone imposts running from north to south across the width of the bridge. The arches meet at a central brick pier with a chamfered stone cap and each have five lower courses of header-bond brick. To the east and west of the elevations are shallow brick terminating pilasters with string courses at the level of the parapet coping, and at the level of the track bed, the latter running the full width of each of the elevations. To either side of each elevation are splayed brick revetments with brick-on edge coping dropping to square-section square piers. These retain the earth embankment to the raised track bed. The parapets are plain and have brick-on-edge coping. The under sides of the arches have the brickwork laid in diagonal skewed courses, offset by five bricks, and to the east is a raised walkway of English-bond red brick with bullnosed engineering brick coping, protected by a timber railing.

Sources

Books and journals
The Victoria History of the County of Leicestershire: Volume V, (1964), p.220-229
James, L, A Chronology of the Construction of Britains Railways 1778-1855, (1983)
Pevsner, N, Williamson, E, The Buildings of England: Leicestershire and Rutland, (1984)

Websites
, accessed from www.lnwrs.org.uk

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