Some Yorkshire bridges
Some Yorkshire bridges Read More »
Bridge markers
While local townships and parishes were responsible for their roads, bridges were a different matter. For one thing many rivers were boundaries, providing endless scope for disputes between the townships on each side: both could deny responsibility. And for another, while travellers could make progress even on poorly-maintained roads rivers presented a sometimes impassable obstacle.
Accordingly the provision and maintenance of bridges on major routes became the responsibility of the county authorities (the Justices in Quarter Sessions), codified in the “Statute of Bridges” of 1531 – except that a bridge in a town or city was the responsibility of its citizens. In addition to the actual bridge, this responsibility extended also to the highway for 300 feet from each end thereof.
In fact the number of bridges that counties maintained was at first relatively small, for despite the statute, often only bridges on major highways through the county were maintained at the county expense, They also excluded bridges which had been built by, for example, a local landowner onto whom responsibility to maintain them could be pinned. In Middlesex in 1786, for example, there were only three; while in Staffordshire in 1792 the Justices spent a mere £298 on all the bridges in the county.
However, in the famous Glasburne Bridge case of 1780 the West Riding was indicted for not repairing a bridge; the County denied liability, maintaining that the bridge had been erected by the township to replace another which it had always maintained. The Court ruled, however, that “if a man build a bridge and it becomes useful to the county in general, the county should repair it”. And thus counties became responsible for more and more bridges, resulting in an Act of 1803, which greatly extended the role of Counties in bridge inspection and maintenance. (Not sure if Glasburne is an old form of Gisburn(e) in Craven.)
County-maintained bridges had markers to denote this status, many of which survive.
By the 19th century many bridges were unsuited to the needs of the growing amount of traffic, and needed widening, strengthening, bypassing or even demolishing and re-building. These “improvements” were often commemorated with plaques, etc.
In this section you will find articles on the different kinds of markers, plaques, etc to be found on our Yorkshire bridges.
Source: Sidney & Beatrice Webb: The Story of the King’s Highway (1913)
RWH / updated June 2020
Bridge chapels: our first toll-houses?
In mediæval times, bridge chapels served an important function as wayside chapels for pilgrims. Mediæval bridges were often the only way of leaving a town or city to venture into the countryside across the farthest bank and, as many towns were established across rivers, they must have been plentiful. But did they also serve another purpose?
The authors of a guidebook to the bridge chapel at Derby* clearly think so. They state ‘Bridge chapels served a number of purposes. They were places where travellers leaving the relative safety of a town would call to pray and receive a blessing before setting out on a possibly dangerous journey through the countryside beyond. Others, about to enter a town, might have paused to offer thanks for a safe arrival. Tolls, for the upkeep of the associated bridges, would have been levied on incoming goods and animals.’ They go on to state ‘It was customary in those days for the daily upkeep of the chapel to be the responsibility of a so-called hermit, appointed by the bishop. The hermit, who lived in the chapel, was also responsible for the collection of tolls.’
So there we have it. As tolls were extracted for the upkeep of the bridge, perhaps the bridge itself belonged to the church? But why are there so few bridge chapels left in England? With the coming of the Reformation, such chapels fell out of favour and by 1547 all had been closed. The subsequent arrival of industrialization and the turnpike era rendered mediæval bridges too narrow for traffic so many chapels, now redundant, would have been demolished.
It is fortunate that a few bridge chapels still exist, and two of them are in Yorkshire, at Wakefield and Rotherham.
Wakefield was an important town in mediæval times. The lovely little bridge chapel built around 1350 sits on the old bridge over the River Calder. It is the best bridge chapel we have despite its west front having been faithfully rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott in 1847. Another reference to toll collecting comes from 1342 when toll rights were granted to the bridge, eight years before the chapel was erected and 15 years before the chapel licence was granted.
The bridge chapel at Rotherham, although similar in style to the one at Wakefield, is well over a hundred years younger. It was heavily restored in 1924. The bridge itself, although mediæval, was widened in the 18th century and narrowed back to its original width in the 20th. It is a miracle that the chapel survived the original widening. Both Wakefield and Rotherham chapels are rectangular with typical ecclesiastical features.
Other bridge chapels are at Cromford (Derbyshire), Derby, St Ives (Cambridgeshire – pictured at top), Bradford-on-Avon (Wiltshire) and Rochester (Kent). Spare a thought for those early pilgrims, having to pay tolls to fulfil their religious desires.
* Robert Innes-Smith: The Chapel of St. Mary on the Bridge, Derby (Derbyshire Countryside, 1987)
A longer version of this article by John Higgins appeared in Milestone Society Newsletter, August 2016, no 31, pp 21-22.
RWH / August 2020
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County bridge markers – gallery
Some examples of the county bridge and related stones in Yorkshire. For more information, click here.
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| A typical West Riding stone, over the River Skell near Fountains Abbey: a minor road and a minor bridge now, but possibly more important in mediaeval times. Grid Reference: SE 671 682 |
Another West Riding example, not a stone but a cast-iron bridge marker, over Hebden Beck, a tributary of the Wharfe at Hebden, between Grassington and Pateley Bridge. Grid Reference: SE 026 322 |
From the North Riding, this stone is in the centre of Greta Bridge, near Barnard Castle – a lovely old bridge, now bypassed by the A66. Grid Reference: NZ 086 132 |
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| This plaque is on a small bridge at Cowgill, over the River Dee, near Dent, in Dentdale (now in Cumbria). It reads: This bridg repered at the charg of th West Riding AD 1702. Grid Reference: SD 761 869 |
A most unusual example, one of a pair of stones each standing 300 feet from the River Holme, on the A6024 at Holmbridge, south-west of Holmfirth. Grid Reference: SE 121 068 |
A cross-type bridge marker on the Skirfare between Kilnsey and Kettlewell, just before it enters the Wharfe. Grid reference: SD 972 691 |
County bridge markers – gallery Read More »
West Riding bridge markers
In 1602 the West Riding Justices named 48 bridges which were to be kept in repair by the County – a relatively small number considering the size of the county. A century and a half later Robert Carr and John Watson produced for the Quarter Sessions a “Book of Bridges” with plans and descriptions of 120 bridges and the extent of the obligation of the Riding for the maintenance of each. At the same time a survey of all the bridges in the county was undertaken by John Westerman and John Gott, which included 308 bridges which were repaired by bodies other than the county – wapentakes, parishes or individuals..
In addition to the actual bridge, the County’s responsibility extended also to the highway for 300 feet from each end thereof. County bridges were marked by stones and several of these survive, even where the bridges themselves have been widened or rebuilt. Usually the stone is sited at the bridge, but occasionally they can be found 300 feet from it. 
There are three main types:
- round-topped stone ones, presumed to be the oldest, with WR carved on them – often now badly eroded – the example here is at Cooper Bridge near Mirfield;
- triangular stone (or are they concrete?) plates, often painted white and marked WR in black on each side; the example at the bottom left is at Grassington on the Wharfe. These we presume to be later, as they are usually in very good condition. There is a theory is that they could date from a later (1803) bridge act as an indication of a bridge’s fitness for purpose.
- and a third, less common, type consisting simply of a vertical cross on a round-topped stone. There are examples of these in the Dales at Hebden (on Hebden Beck where there is also a triangular marker) and Skirfare Bridge (illustrated bottom right) also over the Wharfe. There is a theory that these bridges may have had a monastic origin, though the stones are much later.
Two particularly interesting examples can be found on the Holme Moss road, the A6024 between Holmfirth and Woodhead. About one and a half miles south-west of Holmfirth, at Holmbridge, 100 yards from the bridge on each side of the river, stand two stones each marked with the single word County. Whether these were erected by the Turnpike Trust or, earlier, by the township, Austonley, we do not know.
Another untypical stone can be found at Dunford Bridge, also 100 yards from the bridge: a plain stone with a vertical line cut down the middle.
Sources: West Yorkshire Archives; Milestone Society Newsletter (17, 2009, p 10).
RWH / last updated Jan 2022.
For more illustrations, click here.
West Riding bridge markers Read More »