Full Report for Listed Buildings
The list description is not intended to be a complete inventory of what is listed: it is principally intended to aid identification. By law, the definition of a listed building includes the entire building (i) and any structure or object that is fixed to the said building and ancillary to it and (ii) any other structure or object that forms part of the land and has done so since before 1 July 1948, and was within the curtilage of the building, and ancillary to it, on the date on which said building was first included in the list, or on 1 January 1969, whichever was later.
Summary Description
Reference Number
3236
Building Number
Grade
I
Status
Designated
Date of Designation
23/09/1950
Date of Amendment
05/05/2006
Name of Property
Tubular Railway Bridge
Address
Location
Unitary Authority
Conwy
Community
Conwy
Town
Conwy
Locality
Afon Conwy
Easting
278499
Northing
377467
Street Side
Location
Spanning Afon Conwy on the E side of the castle and S of the modern road and suspension bridges.
Description
Broad Class
Transport
Period
History
On the Chester-Holyhead Railway, built 1846-49 by Robert Stephenson, in collaboration with William Fairbairn and E. Hodgkinson. The architect was Francis Thompson, the contractor William Evans. It was originally intended to be a suspension bridge. The bridge, like Stephenson's contemporary Britannia Bridge spanning the Menai Strait, pioneered wrought-iron box-girder construction. Intermediate piers were added in 1899.
Exterior
A tubular railway bridge between ashlar rectangular castellated towers (originally intended for carrying the chains of a suspension bridge), with blind arrow loops, and an embattled parapet on corbelled machicolations. Lower round turrets to the outer corners have a Lombard frieze to the parapet, and smaller corbelled round turrets to the inner corners have a Lombard frieze to conical caps. The outer sides have a pair of round-headed arches with continuous chamfer. On the inner sides are vents with latticework iron grilles above the girders.
The deck is double-track, each track having its own tubular girder construction, and incorporating a travelling crane. Set back from each end are 2 round concrete-filled cast-iron piers added in 1899.
The approach on the E side has a rock-faced coped wall to a polygonal terminal pier. Beyond, the NE side has a later plainer wall.
Interior
Reason for designation
Listed grade I as a major work of C19 civil engineering of national importance.
Cadw : Full Report for Listed Buildings [ Records 1 of 1 ]
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