Blackwell Bridge

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Blackwell Bridge
County Durham, Yorkshire

Blackwell Bridge
Location
Carrying: A66
Crossing: River Tees
Location
Grid reference: NZ270106
Location: 54°30’29"N, 1°35’3"W
Structure
History
Built 1832 / 1961
Architect: John Green
Information

Blackwell Bridge is a masonry road bridge spanning the River Tees between County Durham and the North Riding of Yorkshire, south of Darlington and upstream of Croft-on-Tees. The bridge was built in 1832, and widened in 1961. It carries the A66 road, which stems from the A66(M) spur off the A1(M) motorway. It was the main route north on the A1 until a bypass was opened in 1965.

History

Before the Blackwell Bridge was built in 1832, the Great North Road was carried across the Tees on Croft Bridge, downstream.

The new bridge was planned in the early part of the nineteenth century, to cross the river where there had been a ford. The ford was hazardous though: many lives are recoded as lost at this point due to being swept away by the waters.[1][2]

The bridge was part of a scheme to improve the Great North Road using a turnpike trust. Tolls for use of the bridge and the associated turnpike received Royal Assent in 1831.[3]The main thrust for building the bridge was the transport of coal from Durham into Yorkshire, which had to use the bridges at either Piercebridge, or Croft, so private finance was raised to enable the building of the bridge. However, within a few years of its construction, the railway to Richmond was built, which effectively took the coal trade away from the road through Stapleton-on-Tees and over the bridge.[4]

The Blackwell Bridge was designed by John Green (1787–1852). He initially suggested that a suspension bridge be installed at Blackwell, akin to his design for Whorlton Bridge upstream on the Tees.[5] The proposal for a suspension bridge was due to the turnpike trust advertising for architects and engineers to submit their designs for a suspension bridge at Blackwell.[6]

The bridge has three semi-elliptical arches, with the two side arches being 68 feet across, and the centre span some 78 feet across.[7][8] The two end arches reach about 20 feet 6 inches above the normal water line, whereas the centre arch, reaches a height of 22 feet 6 inches.[9] The parapet is long and sweeps out at the riverbank edges with octagonal piers,[10] and the whole masonry bridge is ashlar, using stone from Gatherley Moor Quarry.[11][12]

Francis Watt stated that Blackwell Bridge was "pretty", and Pevsner described the bridge as "beautiful".[13][14] Due to the shifting nature of the riverbed, the pillars were set into bales of wool, which was the solution at the time to the possibility of moving foundations. The bridge was originally built to a width of 19 feet, which could only sustain a single carriageway. Just before the A66(M) motorway spur was built, the bridge was disassembled on the south side and was widened to 33 feet in 1961.[11][15][16]

A cottage for the tollkeeper to work and live in was installed on the Yorkshire side at the northern end. The cottage is still there and is now a private residence, however, tolls on the road and bridge were abolished in 1879, and the tollhouse has been altered from the original design.[12][17][18] The old sign displayed on the tollhouse with a list of charges for crossing the bridge, is on display in the Bridge Inn at Stapleton, in Yorkshire.[19]

A great flood in 1883, swept the bridge away and took a labourer with it. He was rescued from the river after passing Croft Bridge.[20]

The bridge used to carry a turnpike road from Scotch Corner through Newton Morrell and into Darlington built in 1832.[21][22] From the 1930s, when roads were classified in Great Britain, the bridge carried the A1 Great North Road until 1965, when the A1(M) Darlington Bypass was built, it now carries the A66 road which now uses the widened bridge.[23][24]

The bridge is a Grade II listed structure.[10]

Outside links

References

  1. ↑ Longstaffe 1854, p. 11.
  2. ↑ Graham, Frank (1975). The bridges of Northumberland and Durham. Newcastle upon Tyne: Graham. p. 4. ISBN 0902833138. 
  3. ↑ "Blackwell Bridge". The Northern Echo (3,055): p. 4. 31 October 1879. OCLC 6685296. 
  4. ↑ "Blackwell Bridge". The North Star (7,596): p. 4. 1 July 1905. OCLC 751720286. 
  5. ↑ Bell, P. W. R. (2018). "The work and professional status of John (1787–1852) and Benjamin Green (1813–1858) architects and engineers". in Wouters, Ine; Van de Voorde, Stephanie; Bertels, Inge et al.. Building knowledge; constructing histories volume 1. Boca Raton: CRC Press. p. 359. ISBN 978-1-138-33230-0. 
  6. ↑ "To architects and engineers: Blackwell Bridge". The York Herald (3092): p. 1. 14 January 1832. OCLC 1325754826. 
  7. ↑ Longstaffe 1854, pp. 40–41.
  8. ↑ Rennison, Robert William; Barbey, M. F. (1996). Civil engineering heritage. Northern England (2 ed.). London: T. Telford. p. 95. ISBN 0-7277-2518-1. 
  9. ↑ Chettoe, C. S.; Henderson, W. (August 1957). "Structural paper no. 53; Masonry Arch Bridges". Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers (London: Institute of Civil Engineers) 7 (4): 726. SSN 0537-9946. 
  10. ↑ 10.0 10.1 National Heritage List 1121318: Blackwell Bridge (Grade II listing)
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 Betteney, Alan (2019). "Crossing the Tees". Cleveland Industrial Archaeology Society & Tees Archaeology. p. 13. https://teesarchaeology.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/Crossing-the-Tees.pdf. 
  12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 Jervoise, E. (1973). The ancient bridges of the North of England. Wakefield: EP Publishing. p. 53. ISBN 0-85409-952-2. 
  13. ↑ Watt, Francis (1889). The rivers of Great Britain. Descriptive, historical, pictorial. Rivers of the east coast. London: Cassell. p. 216. OCLC 1152770381. 
  14. ↑ Pevsner, Nikolaus (2002). Yorkshire, the North Riding. London: Yale University Press. p. 133. ISBN 0-300-09665-8. 
  15. ↑ Lloyd, Chris (15 November 2014). "Bite-sized Blackwell". infoweb.newsbank.com. https://infoweb.newsbank.com/apps/news/document-view?p=AWGLNB&t=continent%3AEurope%21Europe&sort=YMD_date%3AA&page=2&fld-base-0=alltext&maxresults=20&val-base-0=%22blackwell%20Bridge%22&docref=news/1519C17B8D4D0B68. 
  16. ↑ Lloyd, Chris (1 June 2012). "The 180-year-old bridge built on wool". The Northern Echo. https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/9741649.blackwell-darlington-180-year-old-bridge-built-wool/. 
  17. ↑ '[https://www.proquest.com/docview/1197480955 Toll road that left its mark' (The Northern Echo, 24 November 2012
  18. ↑ 'Reader pinpoints location of 1930s road haulage accident': The Northern Echo, 12 March 2018
  19. ↑ Hatcher, Jane (1990). Richmondshire architecture. Richmond: Hatcher. p. 232. ISBN 0951588001. 
  20. ↑ Longstaffe 1854, p. 41.
  21. ↑ "Georeferenced Maps - Map images - National Library of Scotland". https://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17.5&lat=54.50817&lon=-1.58453&layers=168&b=1&o=72. "Use the slider on the bottom left (named "Change transparency of overlay") to toggle between old mapping and modern-day satellite imagery" 
  22. ↑ 'Echo memories - Roman milestone that provided clues about unhappy emperor': The Northern Echo, 25 April 2007
  23. ↑ "View map: Ordnance Survey, Durham LV.13 (Blackwell; Cleasby; Darlington; Stapleton) - Ordnance Survey 25 inch England and Wales, 1841-1952". https://maps.nls.uk/view/120939243. 
  24. ↑ McCoubrey, William James (2002). The motorway achievement. London: Thomas Telford. p. 186. ISBN 9780727731982. 
  • Longstaffe, William Hylton (1854). The history and antiquities of the parish of Darlington, in the [sic]. Darlington: Darlington & Stockton Times. OCLC 1045960811. 


Bridges and crossings on the River Tees
Piercebridge Pipe Bridge Piercebridge Bridge A1(M) Bridge Blackwell Bridge Croft Bridge Tees Bridge Low Hail Bridge
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