page_title: Rainhill
section_title: Landmarks
hierarchical_section_title: Rainhill / Landmarks
caption_attribution_description: English: The skew bridge constructed at Rainhill to take the 1753 Liverpool and Warrington turnpike road (now the A57) over the Liverpool and Manchester Railway. The road crosses at an angle of 34° to the perpendicular, with a span of 54 ft (16.5 m) compared to a distance across the track of 30 ft (9.1 m). The thrust lines of a conventionally built arch would therefore fall outside the bridge abutments on either side, making it unstable. The solution is to lay the bricks forming the arch at an angle to the abutments on either side. This technique, which results in a spiral effect in the arch masonry, provides extra strength in the arch to compensate for the angled abutments; but it also meant that each masonry block had to be individually and expensively cut to its own unique shape, with no two edges either parallel or perpendicular. Experience of building such arches was very limited in 1829, and it is said that a wooden model (full-sized according to some accounts) was constructed in an adjacent field to guide the masons. The bridge, which was later widened, remains in use (cf this contemporary picture), adjacent to Rainhill railway station. It is recognised as a Grade II listed structure.
context_page_description: Rainhill is a large village and civil parish within the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens, in Merseyside, England. The population of the civil parish taken at the 2011 census was 10,853.
  Historically part of Lancashire, Rainhill was formerly a township within the ecclesiastical parish of Prescot, and hundred of West Derby. Following the Local Government Act 1894, it became part of the Whiston Rural District.
  Rainhill is most famous for being the location of a pioneering competition to decide a suitable locomotive design for use on the new Liverpool and Manchester Railway, the world's first inter-city passenger railway which was routed through the village. The Rainhill Trials of 1829 resulted in the selection of Stephenson's Rocket as the world's first "modern" steam locomotive.
context_section_description: Rainhill has several churches including: St Ann's, St Bartholomew's and St James' – which are Church of England, Roman Catholic and Methodist, respectively. There is also an evangelical church.
  A feature of the village is the George Stephenson Skew Bridge, a skew arch bridge of sandstone construction that carries the main road over the railway. It takes its name from the unusual diagonal angle at which the railway passes under the bridge. It is the world's first bridge to cross over a railway at an angle. The bridge was later widened to accommodate increases in road traffic. The milestone on the bridge that informs travellers of the distances to Warrington, Prescot and Liverpool was moved to the opposite side at the time of the expansion. Therefore, the distance markers pointed to the wrong destinations. This quirk was corrected in 2005 when the milestone was returned to the correct side of the bridge.
caption: Skew Bridge. Coloured engraving from 1831
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