Horns Bridge

Horns Bridge
Remaining arch of Horns Bridge over the A61 road in 1984.
Coordinates	53°13′51.1″N 1°25′17.5″W / 53.230861°N 1.421528°W / 53.230861; -1.421528 (Horns Bridge)Coordinates: 53°13′51.1″N 1°25′17.5″W / 53.230861°N 1.421528°W / 53.230861; -1.421528 (Horns Bridge)
Carries	Ex-Lancashire, Derbyshire and East Coast Railway
Crosses	Chesterfield Loop, Midland Main Line, A61 road, A617 road, River Rother, River Hipper
Locale	Chesterfield, Derbyshire
Characteristics
Design	7 brick arches, 4 lattice deck girders and a bowstring bridge
Total length	700 feet (210 m)
Width	Twin Standard Gauge Rail
Height	63 feet (19 m)
History
Opened	February 1897
Closed	March 1957

Horns Bridge is a small area on the southeastern edge of Chesterfield, Derbyshire, England which was remarkable at one time for its congested intersection of roads, rivers, footpaths and railways.

Horns Bridge was all the more striking because the congestion was three-dimensional:

At ground level:

At middle level:

At high level

The best place to start to gain an impression of the pre-1960 Horns Bridge is a map. An OS map from the 1940s gives a good idea, with a range of other old Black and White maps fleshing out detail. Maps are two-dimensional, the aerial photograph in "Gt Central North of Nottingham" gives an idea of scale, complexity and height, which "The Changing Face of Chesterfield" and the DVD complement.

At ground level, both rivers are prone to flooding, which last happened on a serious scale in 2007. The Horns Bridge area and the inter-war floods are superbly shown in "The Changing Face of Chesterfield."

From Chesterfield town centre the Derby and Mansfield roads separate at Horns Bridge. Nowadays this happens at a large roundabout with several exits. In essence, the A617 Mansfield Road has been upgraded to a dual carriageway running South East to Junction 29 of the M1, incorporating in the process much of the trackbed of the GCR's "Chesterfield Loop." South of Horns Bridge the A61 Derby Road is less changed, it is still a traditional two lane road. North of Horns Bridge, however, it has been dualled and re-routed to follow the alignment of the GCR Chesterfield Loop through the town, including opening out the former GCR tunnel.

Travelling southwards from Sheffield Victoria, the GCR's double-track Chesterfield Loop branched West off the GCR's Main Line at Staveley and rejoined it at Heath. Its station in Chesterfield was Chesterfield Central, situated North of the Town Centre. The station closed on 5 March 1963. Tracks South of the station to Grassmoor and Heath were lifted in the Winter of 1963/4.

South from Chesterfield Central the line went immediately into Chesterfield Tunnel, from which it emerged a few hundred yards North of Horns Bridge. It then ran under the Brampton Branch, under a footbridge, under the Midland line, under another footbridge, under the LD&ECR line, over its junction with Hyde's Sidings and finally into open country. This plethora of activity was crammed into a few hundred yards at Horns Bridge.