This is an iron bridge and quite decorative. You can see another shot of it here (looking in the opposite direction, in front of me. I.e the view from the narrow boats) - http://s0.geograph.org.uk/geophotos/01/27/59/1275949_3b351186.jpg It used to to take horse-drawn carriages to the Shugborough estate by leading to another bridge that crossed the ajoining river (which is to the right of the canal seen in the photo), but now just crosses the canal and then ends somewhat abruptly as the second bridge no longer exists. It's as if it's not quite sure where to go anymore.
At the time, I was trying to get a shot of the cycling trio from within one of the iron hoop railings, but they were too fast for me! You can just see them racing along the canal path in the distance heading steadily out of sight. They seemed to know where they were going even if the bridge wasn't certain of its own direction. :)
A bit of trivia about Great Haywood -
The village was home to the newly married Edith Tolkien, wife of famous author J. R. R. Tolkien, from March 1916 to February 1917. He stayed with her in her cottage (Cottage 1, Gipsy Green, on the Teddesley Park Estate) near the village during the winter of 1916, while recuperating from trench fever. At the cottage he began work on what would become The Silmarillion.
Nicely done. :)