Building record MDR16450 - Milford Tunnel North Portal, north of Jacksons Lane, Milford

A Grade II* listed tunnel portal, built c.1838–40, on the North Midland Railway. Milford Tunnel North Portal is formed of a monumental Romanesque arch set into a naturalistic rubble-stone retaining wall, which is of an ambition, elegance and quality unparalleled by those on the rest of the line. The portal is an early example of a railway structure dating from the pioneering phase in national railway development designed by George and Robert Stephenson, among the greatest and most influential of all railway engineers, with their assistant Frederick Swanwick. As an unaltered tunnel portal it is well preserved and possesses group value with the contemporary Chevin Road Bridge [SMR28829], 65m to the north, and more widely with the South Portal [SMR28837] and the sighting tower, all listed at Grade II. The tunnel portal is situated in a cutting. It has a true horseshoe arch consisting of seven ashlar rings, described here from the centre outwards. The first is a concave ring around the arch, with a flat return to the outside edge. The remaining arch rings are semi-circular. They spring from outwardly-angled plinths with simple impost mouldings. The middle five rings step out along the imposts in a sequence as follows: convex, convex, concave, convex, flat. The final outer ring is concave, with a flat return to the outside edge. Surrounding the portal is a rubble stone retaining wall. See list description for further detail. (1)