Thickley Wood Bridge (Shildon)
Thickley Wood footbridge, also known as Hildyard's Bridge and the Cattle Bridge, near the National Railway Museum, Shildon.
It is a 'multi-media bridge', built in stages as the railway system expanded.
The most interesting part has long single-span cast iron beams, made in 1857, bearing the marks HARRIS MDCCCLVII MAKER (see photo). Harris was believed to be John Harris, a Quaker from Lancashire, who was the resident engineer on the Stockton and Darlington Railway from 1836 to 1844. He then became self-employed, and one of his businesses was Hopetown foundry, in Darlington, where the bridge castings were produced. [1]