History in Structure

Railway Under Bridge at NGR SO9750570060 (Adjacent to signal G73)

A Grade II Listed Building in Slideslow, Worcestershire

We don't have any photos of this building yet. Why don't you be the first to send us one?

Upload Photo »

Approximate Location Map
Large Map »

Coordinates

Latitude: 52.3285 / 52°19'42"N

Longitude: -2.038 / 2°2'16"W

OS Eastings: 397506

OS Northings: 270051

OS Grid: SO975700

Mapcode National: GBR 2FZ.TW0

Mapcode Global: VH9ZL.MQGS

Plus Code: 9C4V8XH6+CQ

Entry Name: Railway Under Bridge at NGR SO9750570060 (Adjacent to signal G73)

Listing Date: 6 October 2011

Grade: II

Source: Historic England

Source ID: 1399788

ID on this website: 101399788

Location: Finstall, Bromsgrove, Worcestershire, B60

County: Worcestershire

District: Bromsgrove

Electoral Ward/Division: Slideslow

Parish: Non Civil Parish

Built-Up Area: Bromsgrove

Traditional County: Worcestershire

Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Worcestershire

Church of England Parish: Bromsgrove

Church of England Diocese: Worcester

Tagged with: Railway bridge

Find accommodation in
Bromsgrove

Summary


A railway under bridge and wing walls, built c.1838-40 by the engineer Captain William Scarth Morsom, with assistance from Herbert Spencer, for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway Company.

Description


A railway under bridge and wing walls, built c.1838-40 by the engineer Captain William Scarth Morsom, with assistance from Herbert Spencer, for the Birmingham & Gloucester Railway Company.

MATERIALS: Coursed rock-faced local sandstone.

DESCRIPTION: A double-span viaduct accommodating a small stream under the Lickey Incline. It consists of two semi-circular arched spans of carefully built stonework rising from dressed springing stones. The intrados is of unaltered stone and, to the north-west and south-east, there are opposing wing walls with terminal piers and late-C20 coping. Light steel safety rails were installed in the C20 to form a parapet.


History


The Birmingham & Gloucester Railway was established by Act of Parliament in 1836 and opened in 1840. It was engineered by Captain William Scarth Moorsom (1804-1863) who, after service in Nova Scotia as a military engineer and surveyor with the 52nd Light Infantry, bought his release from the army in 1832. In 1833 Moorsom was asked to survey a route for a proposed railway from Birmingham to Gloucester by Messers Sturge, corn merchants. As the railway directors were almost exclusively concerned with trade between the two cities, Moorsom was asked to survey the most direct route. However, the abrupt change of level occurring south-west of Birmingham, where the line would have to descend 300ft (91.4m) from the Lickey Hills to reach Bromsgrove, presented a major physical difficulty. Initial thoughts suggested that this could be avoided by a detour and both Isambard Kingdom Brunel and George Stephenson, when consulted, favoured this option. However, the directors of the railway company, striving for the cheapest possible option, accepted Moorsom's proposal of an inclined plane, rising upwards of 300 feet (91.4m) in little more than two miles (3.2km), or at the rate of 1 in 37.7 (2.65%). Construction work on the railway began in 1836 with work on the incline, later to be known as the Lickey Incline, starting in late 1838. Assisting Moorsom with the incline and its associated railway structures was the engineer Herbert Spencer (1820-1903) who, after resigning from railway service in 1846, was to become one of the great philosophers of the Victorian era. With some 240,000 cubic yards (183,493 cubic metres) of earth excavated, the steepest inclined plane then known in the world opened to through trains on 17 September 1840. As well as being unwavering in his chosen route, Moorsom was also adamant that the incline should be worked by locomotive engines throughout, rather than stationary engines. With no British manufacture able to supply him with locomotives, American 4-2-0 engines were imported from the Norris Locomotive Works, Philadelphia. However, the incline remained a serious hindrance to traffic until diesel traction supplanted steam.

Reasons for Listing


The railway under bridge, built c.1838-40 by William Scarth Moorsom, with the assistance of Herbert Spencer, for the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway Company, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

* Historic interest: it dates from the construction of the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway in c.1838-40, during the pioneering first phase of railway development.
* Architectural interest: its use of rock-faced rustication gives it an ornamental design interest over and above the more standardised and plainer early railway bridges.
* Engineering interest: as a structure associated with the Lickey Incline which, when opened in 1840, was the steepest inclined railway plane in the world.
* Intactness: as a substantially intact example of a railway under bridge from the pioneering first phase of railway development.
* Historical association: the bridge is constructed to a design by the engineer Captain William Scarth Moorsom, with the assistance of Herbert Spencer, later to become one of the foremost philosophers, social theorist, and sociologists of the Victorian era.


External Links

External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.

Recommended Books

Other nearby listed buildings

BritishListedBuildings.co.uk is an independent online resource and is not associated with any government department. All government data published here is used under licence. Please do not contact BritishListedBuildings.co.uk for any queries related to any individual listed building, planning permission related to listed buildings or the listing process itself.

British Listed Buildings is a Good Stuff website.