Summary
Railway bridge designed by Ignatius Bonomi for the Stockton and Darlington Railway, 1825, carrying the original main line over the River Skerne.
Reasons for Designation
Skerne Bridge is listed at Grade I for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* its elegant proportions and restrained embellishment, being a particularly fine example of Georgian masonry bridge design, the quality of the structure demonstrated by its continuous use for rail traffic since its opening in 1825;
* as the most impressive and technically challenging engineering structure built for the opening of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, retaining important evidence of early railway engineering, including evidence of early strengthening works.
Historic interest:
* the most famous work of the architect Ignatius Bonomi, designed and completed in less than eight months;
* the bridge being seen as the embodiment of the momentous achievement of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, the railway that was so influential in the development of other railways both in England and abroad.
History
The original mainline of the Stockton & Darlington Railway (S&DR) crossed many watercourses, the most prominent being that for the River Skerne on, what was then, the northern outskirts of Darlington. The railway’s engineer, George Stephenson (1781-1848) planned to use a wrought and cast-iron arch to span the river, but the S&DR’s board was not confident that this technologically cutting-edge approach would be successful. In November 1824 Ignatius Bonomi (1787-1870), who was the County Surveyor of Bridges for County Durham, was commissioned by the S&DR’s directors to design a masonry bridge. Construction appears to have been completed by June 1825, when the final bills were paid to the building contractor Francis Peacock. The bridge featured prominently in the opening celebrations on 27 September 1825 and was subsequently used as the focus of many illustrations of the opening of the railway, with the S&DR’s first steam locomotive, Stephenson’s Locomotion Number One, typically depicted hauling a train across the bridge. The S&DR was clearly proud of the bridge, using an illustration of it on the company’s headed paper.
The opening and early years of the S&DR proved to be highly influential for the establishment of other railways both in England and abroad, partly because the company followed a policy of sharing information and experience with visiting engineers and railway promoters. This led Henry Booth of the Liverpool and Manchester Railway to describe Co. Durham as ‘the great theatre of practical operations on railways’. Another example is that the S&DR’s track gauge (4 feet 8.5 inches, 1435mm) set by George Stephenson, was adopted as the Standard Gauge of Britain’s railways, this also being widely adopted across the world. For instance, Jonathon Knight, chief engineer of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, widened their track gauge, originally set at 4 feet 6 inches, to Standard Gauge after visiting the S&DR in 1828-29, this resulting in Standard Gauge being widely adopted across North America. The significance of the S&DR was recognised by the Bank of England in the 1990s with an illustration of Skerne Bridge on the rear of the £5 note.
Most illustrations of Skerne Bridge show it with elegantly curving wing walls. These were added in 1829, under the direction of John Carter (1787-1831), a stone mason from Heighington who had been appointed as Inspector of Masonry for the railway in 1824. When first conceived, the line was expected to transport around 10,000 tons of coal per year, but by mid-1828 over five times that amount was being carried, most of it passing over Skerne Bridge. Carter’s wing walls facilitated the strengthening of the embankments which were starting to show signs of potential failure. The upgrading of the main line to dual track in the early 1830s facilitated a further increase in traffic resulting in the need for additional strengthening works in 1832, these being designed by Thomas Storey (1789-1859). Carter’s wing walls are clearly depicted on the Dixon plan of 1839 which also shows the bridge carrying a double-track line. Sometime between the first and second editions of the Ordnance Survey 1:2500 maps (1855 and 1896) the line was widened with the addition of a new bridge carrying three tracks on the northern side of the original bridge, this widening probably occurring after the S&DR merged with the North Eastern Railway in 1863. Probably around the same time, Carter’s wing walls were covered by new wing walls built of rock-faced stone. It is likely that the 1829 wing walls were left in place and still survive buried within the enlarged embankment. The added three lines on the northern side of the original bridge were removed in the second half of the C20, leaving the stone-built piers of the added bridge extending from the northern elevation of Bonomi’s original bridge. As of 2021, the original 1825 bridge remains in use as part of the national rail network, being the oldest railway bridge in the world that is still in its original use.
Details
Railway bridge spanning the River Skerne, 1825 by Ignatius Bonomi for the Stockton & Darlington Railway.
MATERIALS: finely dressed stone ashlar. Rock-faced stone ashlar is used for the later wing walls and, to the north, the surviving piers of the extension bridge.
DESCRIPTION: the bridge has a single arch spanning the river and is flanked by smaller, lower pedestrian arches set in the wide piers that rise from the riverbanks, being best viewed from the south. The central arch is segmental and is formed with an arch-ring of voussoirs with a roll-moulded string course forming a second, narrower arch-ring. The piers break slightly forwards and have a horizontal string course set level with the springing points of the roll-moulded arch-ring. The pedestrian arches have round arches formed with voussoirs fitted into the coursing of the ashlar stonework of the piers. The bridge, with its piers, is finished with a moulded cornice formed by three courses of stonework, topped by a plain blocking course forming a low parapet fitted with later railings. The flanking wing walls, that retain the sides of the embankment, are gently concave until just before reaching the bridge where they turn sharply convex to butt up against the face of the bridge piers, the point at which the curvature changes being covered by a slightly projecting pilaster. The ramped sections of the wing walls are stone coped, the sections either side of the bridge having a low parapet rising from a moulded cornice. Earlier wing walls are expected to remain buried within the embankment and the structure of the bridge will also retain evidence of C19 strengthening works and approaches to engineering.
Extending from the north face of the 1825 bridge, flanking the river, are the two narrow piers that originally supported the bridge decking for the three lines added in the late C19, now removed. The north face of the 1825 bridge has lost its original cornice and parapet.
