Bridges

Chester has a surprising number of interesting bridges and part of the reason it was founded where it stands is that it was the lowest crossing point of the River Dee. Most of the common types of bridge are illustrated by the city bridges and many have an interesting story associated with them, both in terms of the history of Chester and in terms of the history of bridges in general. Chester has always lain at the convergence of many roadways, both national and local, which have both reflected and reinforced its standing as a regional capital. It was the focal point of Roman military roads in northwest Britain, several stretches of which remained in use in later centuries, often together with river crossings, notably the Dee Bridge in Chester itself. East of the city Roman roads crossed the river Gowy at Stamford and Trafford, later the site of fords and eventually, by the 13th century, of bridges.

Roman Bridge
Many references state that the Romans invented the arch bridge, however several intact arched stone bridges from the Hellenistic era can be found in the Peloponnese, dating to the Greek Bronze Age (13th century BC). However some of these might be better described as a corbel arch which is not a true arch where the support is compressed. The greatest bridge builders of antiquity were the ancient Romans, who made extensive use of the true arch, both in bridges and in buildings.

The original bridge over the Dee was built for the Romans and probably had stone piers carrying a flat timber carriageway. It is said that the remains of the bases of the Roman bridge can be seen in the riverbed just downstream of the Old Dee Bridge. A massive stone wall in Lower Bridge Street has been interpreted as part of a causeway leading to it.

The bridge seems to have disappeared by the 10th century, as in the reign of Æthelflæd of Mercia (AD 911–918) there was only a ferry. However by 1066 a new beidge had been built before the arrival of the Normans. In 1182–3, when the earldom was in royal wardship, work was done on that bridge or its successor, but by 1227 it was claimed that it had collapsed.

Old Dee Bridge
The Old Dee Bridge is often said to be the oldest bridge in the city. It crosses the River Dee carrying the road that leads from the bottom of Lower Bridge Street and the Bridgegate to Handbridge. A bridge on this site was first built in the Roman era, and the present bridge is largely the result of a major rebuilding in 1387. The bridge leading to the Watertower was built between 1323 and 1325 and so might be considered the oldest actual bridge structure in Chester, although that too has certainly been repaired.

The new work was protected by an order, promulgated in 1394 and still in force in 1533, forbidding the passage of carts with iron-bound wheels. It included a tower at the southern end, to finish which it was decided in 1407 to devote half the income from the ensuing five years' murage. That end of the bridge was again repaired or renewed at the end of the 15th century. Built of the local red sandstone, it originally consisted of eight arches, later reduced to seven (four segmental and three pointed), surmounted by a carriageway with a stone parapet; the southern gatehouse, which survived until the 1780s, stood between the sixth and seventh arches from the Chester side.

By the later 16th century the bridge was described as ruinous, and from the 1570s to the 1590s leases of the gatehouse at the southern end obliged the tenant to carry out repairs, apparently to the bridge itself as well as to the buildings upon it; in 1594, for example, the lessee Thomas Lyniall undertook to repair the structure and to build 'fair and beautiful houses' on the tower and south side. Nevertheless, its condition remained a matter of civic concern and the Assembly appointed surveyors for its repair in 1623. During the siege of Chester the bridge seems to have sustained no permanent damage. Charles I crossed it twice in 1645, protected from the besiegers' view on his return journey by specially erected blinds; and the parliamentarians, unable to shake the citizens' hold over it, bypassed it by building a bridge of boats a short distance upstream crossing the River at Dee Lane. Towards the emd of the siege the royalists countered with a sortie across the Dee Bridge and by trying to float fire boats loaded with powder against the bridge of boats, but neither venture succeeded. Even when in December ice floes temporarily broke the bridge of boats and a large detachment of the besiegers was drawn off to counter a royalist force at Whitchurch, the defenders were unable to take advantage, apart from bringing in a small quantity of wheat and oatmeal.

Towards the end of the 18th century anxiety was expressed about the narrowness and inconvenience of the bridge and its approaches. The steep descent in Lower Bridge Street was eased, the Bridgegate rebuilt, and the gatehouse at the Handbridge end demolished. Nevertheless, the structure itself remained 'very narrow and dangerous'. The canalization of the Dee had, no doubt, exacerbated the inconvenience to travellers, since the heavily used fords lower down the river had been replaced by less convenient ferries. Fresh complaints were voiced at a public meeting in 1818, and for some years it was debated whether the better solution would be to widen the existing bridge or to build another. Both policies were eventually adopted. In 1824 the corporation decided that care of the old bridge should be vested in the trustees of the planned new bridge, and improvements were carried out in 1826. The bridge was widened by 7 ft. on the upstream side by adding an iron-plate footpath and railings, and the road surface was macadamized. Tolls taken at the bridge tollhouse were let for over £3,000 in 1826 and 1827, but in 1829 the city judged it more profitable to retain direct control and a paid collector was appointed. Tolls continued to be levied until 1885.

Hockenhull Platts
The three bridges at Hockenhull Platts are often called the "Roman Bridges" although the structures seen today are not Roman. In 1353 when Edward, the Black Prince, crossed the bridges, he ordered that 20 shillings should be spent on their repair.

Grosvenor Bridge


The Grosvenor Bridge, was designed by Thomas Harrison and officially opened in 1832 although it was not finished for traffic to cross it until 1 January 1834. At its opening, the Grosvenor Bridge was the longest existing single-span stone arch road bridge – at 200 feet across and 60 feet high – in the world (the Trezzo sull'Adda Bridge completed in 1377 had been longer, but was destroyed during a seige 1416). The Grosvenor Bridge held the world record for thirty years when it was surpassed by the "Cabin John Bridge" in the USA, 220 feet across and 57 feet 3 inches high. The Grosvenor Bridge is still the longest masonry arch in the UK, and number 19 in the world.

Dee Railway Bridge
During the Industrial Revolution iron became available for the construction of bridges. At Ironbridge a 100-foot (30 m) cast iron bridge that opened in 1781 survives to this day. Casr iron is immensely strong in compression, but performs less well than steel and wrought iron when subjected to tension or bending moments, because of its brittleness and lower tensile strength. The bridge uses carpentry techniques in its construction, such as mortice and tenon joints and dovetails.

In late 1846, the Shrewsbury and Chester Railway, later to become part of the Great Western Railway, first carried traffic. From Saltney Junction, access was gained to Chester via the Chester & Holyhead Railway. This latter line was carried over the River Dee, in the same place where it crosses today, by the Dee Railway Bridge: three 98-foot spans of cast-iron girders resting on stone piers. Each of the girders was made of three large castings dovetailed together and bolted to a raised reinforcing piece. Each girder was strengthened by wrought iron bars along the length.

Both the bridge and the line had been designed by the great railway engineer, Robert Stephenson. The design was not unlike that of the Tay Bridge, which collapsed some thirty years later. Robert Stephenson was the son of George, of Rocket fame, who was often called the "father" of the railways. Although a span of some 80 m (250 ft) was called for, Stephenson’s bridge had just two stone piers because of concerns about the foundations in the river bed; these were linked by a construction of cast-iron girders on which oak joists were laid that supported the twin tracks. On 24 May 1847, the carriages of a local passenger train to Ruabon fell through the bridge into the river. The accident resulted in five deaths (three passengers, the train guard and the locomotive fireman) and nine serious injuries. The investigation was one of the first major inquiries conducted by the newly-formed Railway Inspectorate. The lead investigator was Captain Simmons of the Royal Engineers, and his report suggested that repeated flexing of the girder weakened it substantially. He examined the broken parts of the main girder, and confirmed that it had broken in two places, with the first break occurring at the centre. He tested the remaining girders by driving a locomotive across them, and found that they deflected by several inches under the moving load. His conclusion was that the design was basically flawed. The Dee bridge was later rebuilt using wrought iron, after several more failed attempts to use cast iron by Stephenson.

One thing which immediately strikes the visitor is that the railway bridge is much lower than the Grosvenor Bridge just a short distance upstream. The Dee railway bridge dates from 1846, while the Grosvenor Bridge was completed in 1833. Nothing could tell more clearly of the decline of "tall ships" plying their way to Chester over that 13 year period.

Suspension Bridge
This type of bridge has cables or chains suspended between towers, with vertical suspenders that transfer the live and dead loads of the deck below, upon which traffic crosses. This arrangement allows the deck to be level or to arc upward for additional clearance. Like other suspension bridge types, this type often is constructed without the need for temporary "falsework" to support the bridge during building. The main forces in a suspension bridge of any type are tension in the cables and compression in the pillars. Since almost all the force on the pillars is vertically downwards, and the bridge is also stabilized by the main cables, the pillars can be made quite slender.

The Queen's Park Suspension Bridge connects The Groves with the affluent Queen's Park area of Chester. Queen's Park was planned on a greenfield site immediately south of the River Dee and next to the Earls Eye in 1851 by Enoch Gerrard and others. It was developed in the 1850s and 1860s as a middle class residential suburb.

Roving Bridge
Next to the Graving Dock at the boatyard is a "Roving Bridge". This allows the horses drawing a barge to cross from one side of the river to the other where the tow-path changes sides, as it does here. The clever design of the bridge allows this to happen without disconnecting the tow rope or tangling it. The bridge bears a memorial to L. T. C. Rolt who was a prolific English writer and the biographer of major civil engineering figures including Isambard Kingdom Brunel and Thomas Telford. He is also regarded as one of the pioneers of the leisure cruising industry on Britain's inland waterways, and as an enthusiast for both vintage cars and heritage railways.

Bridge of Sighs
A little beyond canal bridge at Northgate is a narrow stone arch which spans the chasm containing the canal. This is known as the "Bridge of Sighs". It is best seen from the bridge crossing the canal outside the Northgate or from the tow-path below. This is a flimsy-looking structure with no railings, and there is no means of accessing it at either end. The bridge cost £20 ($30) to build in 1793, and was designed by Joeseph Turner. It originally went from the Prison to a nearby chapel (in St John's Hospital) and had iron railings to prevent the prisoners from escaping.

Curzon Park Bridge
The original footbridge across The Dingle to Curzon Park was described as "a pretty little suspension bridge", but at some time was replaced by the current lattice steel bridge.

Related Pages

 * Roman Chester;
 * Old Dee Bridge;
 * Grosvenor Bridge;
 * Suspension Bridge:

Online

 * Dee Bridge Disaster: