Researching the history of bridges
Bridges are expensive to build. Then they require maintenance. Who paid for all this? Bridges benefit the whole travelling public, so they could be supported by taxes. Other approaches, such as tolls, have been tried over the centuries. So the first question for the researcher is 'who paid?' An answer should lead to records, if any survive.
The Romans were great bridge-builders. They seem to have used timber for
most of their British bridges, which are long gone. In late Saxon times we see
a concern to maintain bridges. Grants of land could include an obligation to do
bridge-work, such as this charter
by Oswald, Bishop of Worcester in 969. And we have a list
of estates liable for work on Rochester bridge, where the stone piers of a
Roman bridge survived. Place-names incorporating the Old English word for
bridge (brycg), such as Bristol (brycg-stow) tell us that a bridge existed there,
while London Bridge rates a
mention in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle. Bridges
can appear as boundary-markers in Anglo-Saxon
charters, though caution is needed. A 'stan
brycg' could sometimes be no more than a stone-paved ford. Meanwhile there
are some references to timber bridges in pre-Norman Ireland. The Gaelic name
for Dublin - Baile Átha Cliath means town
of the hurdled ford
.
Yet outside of towns bridges were quite rare in Britain and Ireland until at least the 13th century. Medieval bridges can be recognised by their Gothic pointed arches. They were generally built by boroughs, manorial lords or monasteries, though some were paid for by wealthy and public-spirited individuals. Bequests could be left towards bridge upkeep. Such gifts might go to a guild, fraternity or other body which maintained the bridge. The Statute of Bridges (1531) decreed that, in the absence of any traditional duty upon an individual, parish, hundred, corporation or other body to keep a particular bridge in repair, it should be maintained by the county.
Stone bridges normally had a chapel on them or on the bank at one end. Travellers could say a prayer there for a safe journey. Such chapels in England and Wales were dissolved in 1547 as chantries, and so should appear in the surveys of chantries unless they escaped attention through lack of income. After the Reformation many bridge chapels were converted to other purposes, such as lock-ups or warehouses, which prolonged their survival. Even so only a handful are still intact today in Britain. The Chapel of Our Lady on Rotherham Bridge was restored as a chapel in 1924. Other survivors are at Bradford-upon-Avon, Derby, St. Ives (Hunts.), Salisbury (much altered) and Wakefield.
Medieval bridges could be fortified. Rivers were often used as boundaries or formed part of town defenses, so it would make sense to guard the river crossing with a strong gateway. Few survive in Britain. Monnow Bridge in Wales has the only surviving gate on a bridge, while at Warkworth in Northumberland there is a late 14th-century stone gate tower at one end of the bridge. Other places like London, Bath, Bristol, Shrewsbury and Stirling had bridge gates once. In fact Bristol managed to combine both bridge chapel and gate in one massive structure.
Shops on bridges could attract passing trade. The bustling cities of London, Bristol and York had shops crammed along their bridges until they were swept away by Georgian improvement schemes. Palladian bridges became fashionable in Georgian Britain; shops on bridges were seen as outdated and an impediment to traffic. Pulteney Bridge in Bath was perverse - a Palladian design which incorporated shops.
With the Industrial Revolution came new bridge technology. For over a century, Britain led the world in bridge design. The world's first iron bridge went up at Coalbrookdale in 1779. The first chain suspension bridge was earlier than that. A bridge of iron chains at Market Harborough is mentioned in an Act of Parliament of 1721. But the UK's first large-scale suspension bridge was the Menai Bridge designed by Thomas Telford and completed in 1826. Kenmare Suspension Bridge, begun in 1840, was the first of its kind in Ireland. The Forth Railway Bridge in Scotland was the world's first major steel bridge. Opened in 1890, it is a staggering one and a half miles long.
There was a burst of bridge building in the Victorian period, including many thousands of railway bridges.
Studies and Gazetteers: International
- Blockley, D., Bridges: The science and art of the world's most inspiring structures (Oxford University Press 2010).
- Cruickshank, D., Dan Cruickshank's Bridges: Heroic designs that changed the world (2010). Sprang from a television series.
- Murrey, P. and Stevens, M.A. (eds.), Living Bridges: The inhabited bridge, past, present and future (1996). A selective world gazetteer of bridges with houses or other structures on them.
- Ruddock, E. (ed.), Masonry Bridges, Viaducts and Aqueducts,
Studies in the History of Civil Engineering, vol. 2 (2000). Famous bridges
in Britain, Italy, France, Iran and the USA are all featured. Includes:
- J. Summerson, Berwick-on-Tweed Bridge
- E. I. Williams, Pont-y-pridd: a critical examination of its history
- E. C. Ruddock, William Edwards’s bridge at Pontypridd
- E. C. Ruddock, The foundations of Hexham Bridge
- Jean Manco, Pulteney Bridge
- J. Heyman and B. D. Threlfall, Two masonry bridges: II. Telford’s bridge at Over
- L. D. Lankton, Valley crossings on the Old Croton Aqueduct.
Studies: National - Britain and Ireland
- Cooper, A., Bridges, Law and Power in Medieval England, 700-1400 (2006). Covers the question of who was responsible for the upkeep of bridges.
- De Maré, E., The Bridges of Britain (2nd edn. 1975). Includes a selective gazetteer of existing bridges in England, Scotland and Wales. (A collection of de Maré's photographs is held by the English Heritage National Monuments Record and can be searched online through ViewFinder.)
- Green, E., Bridge Chapels, Historic Churches (2002).
- Harrison, D., The Bridges of Medieval England: Transport and Society 400-1800 (Oxford Historical Monographs 2004).
- O'Keeffe, P., Irish Stone Bridges: History and heritage (1991).
- Ruddock, E., Arch Bridges and Their Builders, 1735-1835 (1979). Britain and Ireland.
- Yorke, T., Bridges Explained (2008). Includes a selected gazetteer of bridges to visit in England, Wales and Scotland.
Studies: Local - Britain and Ireland
- Jervoise, E., The Ancient Bridges of Mid and Eastern England (1932). Survey for SPAB.
- Jervoise, E., The Ancient Bridges of the North of England (1931, 1973). Survey for SPAB.
- Jervoise, E., The Ancient Bridges of the South of England (1930). Survey for SPAB.
- Jervoise, E, The Ancient Bridges of Wales and Western England (1936, 1976). Survey for SPAB.
- Manco, J., Pulteney Bridge, Architectural History vol. 38, also published as Pulteney Bridge (Bath 1995), and reprinted in Ted Ruddock (ed.), Masonry Bridges, Viaducts and Aqueducts (2000).
- Rowlands, M. L. J., Monnow Bridge and Gate (1994). Also published in Archaeologia Cambrensis vol. 142 (1993), 243-87.
- Wilson, B. and Mee, F., 'The Fairest Arch in England' Old Ouse Bridge, York, and its Buildings: The Pictorial Evidence (York Archaeological Trust 2002).
Primary sources
Plans and accounts by bridge-builders and owners- London Bridge: selected accounts and rentals, 1381-1538, ed. V. Harding and L. Wright, London Record Society, vol. 31 (1995). Online in full.
- The medieval York Bridgemaster's Accounts are online.
- London School of Economics & Political Science Library: COLL F: 9 volumes of papers relating to the construction and administration of bridges, roads, piers, railways, harbours, reservoirs and canals in Scotland, 1782-1841.
- Corporation archives have records of bridges owned now or originally by the corporation. These can generally be found in the relevant city or county archive e.g. Bridgnorth Borough Bridgmasters Account Rolls 1626-1641 are in Shropshire Archives BB/D/1/3/1/4-15.
- Quarter Sessions records contain accounts of money spent on bridge in the care of the county. These will be found in the relevant county record office.
- The Institution of Civil Engineers holds the papers of several noted Georgian and Victorian bridge-builders.
- Bridges are marked on maps
- 16th and 17th century bird's-eye town views will show bridges.
- Drawings may show bridges. See for example the 17th-century view of the Old Exe Bridge, Exeter by Willem Schellinks. For online image collections by region and period see Image finder.
- Travel and topographical works often mention bridges and may even include an image. See Primary sources in print for a bibliography with many links to online editions. See also Historic British and Irish Local Guidebooks.