Building record 6719/1/5 - Railway bridge DCL 69 carrying farm accommodation track over railway, c.50 metres south-east of Twyford Mill

An early C20 rebuilding of a bridge carrying an unnamed farm track over the railway line at King's Sutton in Northamptonshire, which incorporates cast-iron beams thought to date to the mid-C19 and believed to have been salvaged from the site of a demolished railway bridge.

{1} Reasons for currently not Listing the Building
The railway bridge DCL 69 at King's Sutton in Northamptonshire, which carries an unnamed farm track over the railway, is not designated for the following principal reasons:

* Date: the bridge dates to the early C20 when the former timber bridge elements were replaced by re-used cast-iron beams from a demolished railway bridge of earlier date., the origins of which are unknown; * Historic interest: the bridge makes use of salvaged cast-iron beams obtained from the site of a demolished railway bridge. The site of the bridge has not been identified, nor has its date or the engineer responsible for its design. In the absence of such information, the historic interest of the bridge is limited;

* Architectural interest: the bridge is a functional design which makes use of salvaged cast-iron beams of an earlier era and retains the piers of the original bridge, creating a hybrid structure which is almost wholly lacking in architectural interest; * Alteration: the bridge has undergone different forms of alteration in the late C20 or early C21, with the replacement of various sections of the parapets in a variety of materials. none of which appear to represent any coherent design imperative.

History
The railway accommodation bridge carrying a farm track over the railway (bridge DCL 69) to the north of King's Sutton in Northamptonshire was originally constructed in 1846-50 to the designs of Isambard Kingdom Brunel, engineer for the Oxford and Rugby Railway, developed by the Great Western Railway following an enabling Act of Parliament of 1845. The section of the proposed route between Oxford and Banbury opened in 1850.

The bridge was originally built as a standard design triple span accommodation bridge, with intermediate brick piers carrying longitudinal timber beams which supported a timber bridge deck. The timber beams and deck members were replaced c.1900 with seven re-used cast-iron Hodgkinson-type beams initially believed to have been salvaged from a demolished bridge on the Birmingham, Wolverhampton and Dudley railway of 1847-54 and also thought to have been designed by John Robinson McClean. The applicant has since made it clear that neither the bridge location nor its designer could be verified. The present timber deck and sheet metal parapet walls are modern replacements, with only the brick piers and the short lengths of parapet walling on the east side of the bridge surviving from the original design.

Details
The bridge identified as DCL 69 is an accommodation bridge of 1846-50, carrying a farm track over the railway line to the north of Kings Sutton. It is a slightly cambered triple-span bridge with C20 alterations to the deck and parapets.

Materials. Cast iron deck beams, supporting C20 deck timbers. The bridge has brick piers with ashlar caps and sheet metal parapet walls with brick end panels. There are C20 timber post and rail sections of fencing to the west approach.

Exterior. The bridge comprises two deep brick piers each with a semi-circular arch-headed aperture to the centre. The piers are capped with substantial stone padstones which support the bearing end of the seven salvaged forty-foot Hodgkinson cast-iron beams which replaced the original timber bridge beams. The bridge has a modern deck with supporting timbers extending beyond the width of the deck to support angled braces to the C20 sheet metal parapet walls. On the east side of the bridge are short lengths of brick parapet walling, whilst the west side has one section in replacement blue brick.

<1> English Heritage, Designation Advice Report, Railway bridge DCL 69 at Kings Sutton, Northants (Report). SNN113190.

Record last edited

Feb 25 2025 7:17PM