The old bridge in Huntingdon (now part of Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

) is a well-preserved medieval stone

Rock (geology)

In geology, rock or stone is a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals and/or mineraloids.The Earth's outer solid layer, the lithosphere, is made of rock. In general rocks are of three types, namely, igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic...

 bridge

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

 over the River Great Ouse

River Great Ouse

The Great Ouse is a river in the east of England. At long, it is the fourth-longest river in the United Kingdom. The river has been important for navigation, and for draining the low-lying region through which it flows. Its course has been modified several times, with the first recorded being in...

, connecting Huntingdon

Huntingdon

Huntingdon is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England. The town was chartered by King John in 1205. It is the traditional county town of Huntingdonshire, and is currently the seat of the Huntingdonshire district council. It is known as the birthplace in 1599 of Oliver Cromwell.-History:Huntingdon...

 to Godmanchester

Godmanchester

Godmanchester is a small town and civil parish within the Huntingdonshire district of Cambridgeshire, in England. It lies on the south bank of the River Great Ouse, south of the larger town of Huntingdon, and on the A14 road....

.

History

The town has long been an important bridgehead, with Ermine Street

Ermine Street

Ermine Street is the name of a major Roman road in England that ran from London to Lincoln and York . The Old English name was 'Earninga Straete' , named after a tribe called the Earningas, who inhabited a district later known as Armingford Hundred, around Arrington, Cambridgeshire and Royston,...

 (connecting London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 to Lincoln

Lincoln, Lincolnshire

Lincoln is a cathedral city and county town of Lincolnshire, England.The non-metropolitan district of Lincoln has a population of 85,595; the 2001 census gave the entire area of Lincoln a population of 120,779....

 and York

York

York is a walled city, situated at the confluence of the Rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. The city has a rich heritage and has provided the backdrop to major political events throughout much of its two millennia of existence...

), as well as various east-west trade routes, crossing the Great Ouse here. Ermine Street would have first crossed the river here via a ford, believed to be some way to the west of the present bridge. Edward the Elder

Edward the Elder

Edward the Elder was an English king. He became king in 899 upon the death of his father, Alfred the Great. His court was at Winchester, previously the capital of Wessex...

 built a wood

Wood

Wood is a hard, fibrous tissue found in many trees. It has been used for hundreds of thousands of years for both fuel and as a construction material. It is an organic material, a natural composite of cellulose fibers embedded in a matrix of lignin which resists compression...

en bridge in the early 10th century a few yards to the west of the current bridge, and also ordered the nearby Huntingdon Castle

Huntingdon Castle

Huntingdon Castle was situated in the town of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire .The site was originally occupied by the Saxons. In 1068 a Norman motte and bailey castle was built for William the Conqueror. During the Anarchy the castle was held by David, King of Scotland through his marriage to...

 to be rebuilt. Until the 1107 construction of the first bridge

St Ives Bridge

St Ives Bridge is a 15th century bridge crossing the River Great Ouse in St Ives, Cambridgeshire, England. It noted for being one of only four bridges in England to incorporate a chapel ....

 in St Ives

St Ives, Cambridgeshire

St Ives is a market town in Cambridgeshire, England, around north-west of the city of Cambridge and north of London. It lies within the historic county boundaries of Huntingdonshire.-History:...

, it is believed that there was no bridge further downstream, and foreign trade would navigate the river as far upstream as Huntingdon.

Responsibility for the bridge's repair was for centuries a matter of dispute. In 1259 a court ruling finally ordered that the county should pay to keep it repaired in return for rendering the bridge toll-free. Nonetheless, the bridge remained in a poorly maintained state, and by 1329 was declared to be in severe danger of collapse.

The current bridge was constructed around 1332, with work starting on both banks or the river. The slight kink near the central pier was a result of the lack of alignment of the two halves. Consisting of six arches and faced with ashlar, the parapets which form recesses for pedestrians, are triangular in shape on the north side, and semi-hexagonal on the south.

It was intended for both pedestrian

Pedestrian

A pedestrian is a person traveling on foot, whether walking or running. In some communities, those traveling using roller skates or skateboards are also considered to be pedestrians. In modern times, the term mostly refers to someone walking on a road or footpath, but this was not the case...

 and horse

Horse

The horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...

-drawn transport (the bridge has recesses for people to stand to let the heavier traffic pass), but now serves exclusively for light vehicular traffic. Pedestrians use a parallel footbridge

Footbridge

A footbridge or pedestrian bridge is a bridge designed for pedestrians and in some cases cyclists, animal traffic and horse riders, rather than vehicular traffic. Footbridges complement the landscape and can be used decoratively to visually link two distinct areas or to signal a transaction...

 just metres upstream, and heavy goods vehicles must use the modern bridge, which forms part of the A14 bypass. However, until that was built in 1975, the narrow medieval bridge stood alone, and had to be used by both lorries travelling the Great North Road and footgoing shoppers, to the dissatisfaction of all parties.

The bridge is now Grade I listed and a Scheduled Ancient Monument

Scheduled Ancient Monument

In the United Kingdom, a scheduled monument is a 'nationally important' archaeological site or historic building, given protection against unauthorized change. The various pieces of legislation used for legally protecting heritage assets from damage and destruction are grouped under the term...

.

In 2006 an entire portion of parapet was struck by traffic and plunged into the river, the repair has been done to English Heritage standard.

External links

• Town conservation, including a brief history