High Bridge carries the High Street across the

River Witham The River Witham is a river almost entirely in the county of Lincolnshire in the east of England. It rises south of Grantham close to South Witham at , passes through the centre of Grantham (where it may be closely followed using the Riversi ...

in Lincoln in eastern England. It is the oldest bridge in the United Kingdom which still has buildings on it. The bridge was built about 1160 AD and a

bridge chapel A bridge chapel is a small place of Christian worship, built either on, or immediately adjacent to, a road bridge; they were commonly established during pre-Reformation medieval era in Europe. Although sometimes built on land at the very start of ...

was built dedicated to

Thomas Becket Thomas Becket (), also known as Saint Thomas of Canterbury, Thomas of London and later Thomas à Becket (21 December 1119 or 1120 – 29 December 1170), was an English nobleman who served as Lord Chancellor from 1155 to 1162, and then ...

in 1235 on the east side of the bridge. The chapel was removed in 1762. The current row of

timber framed Timber framing (german: Holzfachwerk) and "post-and-beam" construction are traditional methods of building with heavy timbers, creating structures using squared-off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden ...

shops on the west side of the bridge date from about 1550. The two upper storeys of the shops are

jettied Jettying (jetty, jutty, from Old French ''getee, jette'') is a building technique used in medieval timber-frame buildings in which an upper floor projects beyond the dimensions of the floor below. This has the advantage of increasing the avail ...

forward and at the corners there are carved figures of angels. The shops were partly dismantled and re-erected in 1901–02 under the supervision of the Lincoln architect William Watkins. Bridges like this were common in the Middle Ages, the best known being

London Bridge Several bridges named London Bridge have spanned the River Thames between the City of London and Southwark, in central London. The current crossing, which opened to traffic in 1973, is a box girder bridge built from concrete and steel. It rep ...

, but most have long since been demolished because of their obstruction to the river flow and to shipping. High Bridge Glory Hole, Lincoln

The ''Glory Hole'' is the name given by generations of boaters to the High Bridge in Lincoln. It has a narrow and crooked arch which sets a limit on the size of boats using the

Witham Witham () is a town in the county of Essex in the East of England, with a population ( 2011 census) of 25,353. It is part of the District of Braintree and is twinned with the town of Waldbröl, Germany. Witham stands between the city of Chelmsf ...

and going from Brayford Pool, at the start of

Foss Dyke The Foss Dyke, or Fossdyke, connects the River Trent at Torksey to Lincoln, the county town of Lincolnshire, and may be the oldest canal in England that is still in use. It is usually thought to have been built around AD 120 by the Roma ...

, to

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- m ...

and the sea. Since the 14th century the bridge has contributed to floods in Lincoln and after any heavy rain the bridge is virtually unnavigable, which may be why it got its name. A design by

William Jessop William Jessop (23 January 1745 – 18 November 1814) was an English civil engineer, best known for his work on canals, harbours and early railways in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Early life Jessop was born in Devonport, Devon, the ...

in the 19th century to reroute the waters of the Witham through the south of the town was never implemented. The bridge is both a grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Ir ...

and a scheduled monument.

References

{{reflist Bridges in Lincolnshire Grade I listed bridges Buildings and structures completed in 1160 Buildings and structures in Lincoln, England Bridges with buildings Scheduled monuments in Lincolnshire Timber framed buildings in England Bridges completed in the 12th century Arch bridges in the United Kingdom

See also

References