Buttington Bridge, Powys, by W. N. Swettenham, County Surveyor for Montgomeryshire. 1872. This single-span bridge is the main road bridge here across the River Severn, taking what is now called the A458 from Shrewsbury to Welshpool (Buttington is a village on the outskirts of Welshpool). Richard Haslam refers to the Grade II listed bridge as a "Gothic span" (66), no doubt because of its decorative elements. The listing text describes it more technically as having "[f]ive elliptical iron arches reinforced with later steel framing, springing from rusticated stone abutments, and having a cast iron parapet consisting of zig-zag line with bold trefoil decoration, cast in two halves in sections approximately 1.6m long." The listing text also explains that "[t]he abutments have very shallow elliptical land arches of yellow stone with red sandstone quoin decoration and keystones, and rise to small refuges at road level. The bridge is approached by causeways of rusticated stone on both sides." Of special interest is Swettenham's use of prefabricated sections of cast iron to provide what the listing text describes approvingly as "a worthy major river bridge."
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Bibliography
"Buttington Bridge". British Listed Buildings. Web. 25 January 2020.
Haslam, Richard. Powys (Montgomeryshire, Radnorshire, Breconshire). The Buildings of Wales. Corrected ed. London: Penguin, 1992.
Created 25 January 2020