Building record MDR16467 - New Road Bridge, A609 New Road, Belper

A single-span, Grade II listed skew overbridge built in 1836-40 for the North Midland Railway. New Road Bridge forms part of a series of railway structures built for the North Midland Railway between 1837 and 1840. The line was designed by George and Robert Stephenson, two of the most important and influential engineers of the railway era, aided by Frederick Swanwick, the company's resident engineer. The line is considered to be amongst the best- preserved examples of the pioneering phase of railway development in England, and retains many of its original engineering structures, of which this is an example. Cutting-edge developments in skew arches were designed specifically to meet the requirements of the railway, enabling them to be built in large numbers for the first time. Skew bridges represent a truly innovative engineering solution of the pioneering phase of railway development, and are therefore the first of their kind anywhere in the world. New Road Bridge is an example of the consistently high quality design and careful detailing of railway structures completed for the North Midland Railway between 1837 and 1840. Its aesthetic quality far exceeds the functional and structural requirements of bridge design. The bridge forms part of an integrated design for the Belper cutting, in which the overbridges and the cutting walls share a common architectural vocabulary, and are seen in combination as elements of a railway transport landscape of great interest and quality. New Road Bridge is one of a series of eleven bridges and associated stone-lined cuttings which run through Belper, north of the River Derwent. All eleven of these bridges are listed at Grade II, as is the associated cutting between Long Row and Field Lane, and King Street and New Road. New Road Bridge is located at the southern end of the Grade II-listed, stone-lined cutting walls. The bridge has not been subject to any alterations. See list description for more details. (1)