Stone Wharf Bridge (MLN111042), Corston, Bath and North East Somerset

Summary

An accommodation underbridge in the Tudor-Gothic style with a four-centred arch, built into an embankment c.1839-40, with contrasting elevations.

Description

MATERIALS: squared and coursed Pennant stone walling and soffit, Bath ashlar dressings for voussoirs, quoins, string course and copings.

DESCRIPTION: south (Down) elevation: facing the A4, Bath-Bristol Turnpike, a fully articulated composition with a depressed, four-centred arch with a span of 16 ft (5m) and chamfered voussoirs terminating at the footings in chamfer stops. Low continuous chamfered plinth to the abutments. Archway flanked by stepped buttresses, the offsets with drip-mould and arris. Beyond the buttresses the face continues unbroken and parallel to the trackbed as straight wing walls, with a string course moulded with arris which merges with the top of the upper offsets of the buttresses. Above, a continuous parapet terminating in projecting piers. The piers and parapet are unified by chamfered coping. C20 steel railings mounted above the coping.

North (Up) elevation: facing fields, a much more austere design, with ashlar dressing restricted to coping and no mouldings. Plain chamfered four-centred arch, plain wall face, raked wing walls splayed but almost perpendicular to the railway. No parapet. C20 steel railings mounted above the coping.

Arch soffit and carriageway faces unaltered throughout.

History

The Great Western Railway was authorised by an Act of Parliament in 1835 to construct a line from London to Bristol. At 118 miles this was slightly longer than the other major trunk railway of its time, the London and Birmingham (112 miles) and considerably longer than other pioneering lines. Construction of the line began in 1836, using a variety of contractors and some direct labour. The first section to be completed, from London to Maidenhead Riverside (Taplow), opened in 1838, and thereafter openings followed in eight phases culminating in the completion of the whole route in 1841. Work at the Bristol end of the line had started in 1835, and the section from Bristol to Bath had opened in August 1840.

The engineering of the railway was entrusted in 1833 to Isambard Kingdom Brunel (1806-59), who was already known for his engineering projects in Bristol. More than any other railway engineer of his time he took sole responsibility for every aspect of the engineering design, from surveying the line to the detailing of buildings and structures. He sought to achieve as level a route as possible and, working from first principles, he persuaded the Directors of the GWR to adopt a broad gauge of 7ft 0¼ in rather then the standard (4ft 8½in) gauge in use on other lines. A two track broad gauge line was 30ft wide, and this determined the span of the overbridges and other structures. Except for larger bridges such as Maidenhead Bridge, the majority of Brunel’s masonry bridges did not need to be as innovative as his works in timber and iron, and his structures followed the typical architectural idioms of his time, but they were all beautifully detailed and built and together they formed integral parts of a consistently-designed pioneering railway.

Although he left no written statement concerning his design concept for the line, it can be inferred from its design and from the way it was described when opened that part of his vision was a line engineered according to picturesque principles. This influenced his selection of the route and the design of structures along it. For reasons of cost, but also because it helped blend the railway to the landscape, he used local materials for bridges and other structures, ranging from stock brick at the London end of the line, to red brick, Bath stone east of Bath and Pennant stone west of Bath. This intentional variety was remarked on by contemporaries, for instance in Bourne 1846. On the line from Bristol to Bath, where the track runs along the Avon valley, Brunel chose to use Tudor four-centred arches for both the over- and underbridges, and castellation for tunnel portals and viaducts. This makes it the most distinctive part of the whole route from London to Bristol, and it is also the section on which the structures have generally survived in their original form because this part of the route was not quadrupled and the Pennant stone used for most structures has lasted well.

Stone Wharf Bridge

Existing contract drawings for bridges and other structures on the Bath – Bristol section of the line carry the signature of I.K. Brunel, reflecting his involvement with every aspect of the project. The Resident Engineer was G.E. Frere (1807-87), assisted by G.T. Clark (1809-98) and Michael Lane (1802-68), but their individual contributions have not been identified.

Stone Wharf Bridge was one of the structures built c.1839-40 in time for the opening of this stretch of the line in August 1840. Contract drawings survive together with a sketch in one of Brunel's sketch books show him trying five different variations for Gothic underbridges and selecting the design which was executed with some changes at Stone Wharf and in a number of other locations. The bridge is unaltered except for the C20 addition of metal railings.

Reasons for Listing

Stone Wharf Bridge in Corston is designated at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Date: an early example of a railway structure dating from the pioneering phase in national railway development;
* Architectural interest: it is characteristically well designed, by the hand of Brunel, with a chamfered four-centred arch, stepped buttresses and wing walls in a Tudor-Gothic style;
* Group value: it forms a group of a group of architecturally similar and listed bridges on the section between Bristol and Bath;
* Historic association: it is constructed to a design by Isambard Kingdom Brunel who is widely perceived as one of the most important transport engineers and architects of the C19.

External Links

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