The Kelso Bridge or Rennie's Bridge is a bridge across the

River Tweed The River Tweed, or Tweed Water, is a river long that flows east across the Border region in Scotland and northern England. Tweed cloth derives its name from its association with the River Tweed. The Tweed is one of the great salmon rivers ...

at Kelso, in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

History

Old bridge

Kelso Abbey and the auld brig in the late 18th century

The first bridge at the site was opened in 1754, funded by public subscription. It had six arches, and replaced a ferry which was dangerous during times of bad weather and limited the volume of traffic that could pass through the town. An arch collapsed in 1756, killing 6 people. The bridge was repaired, but a storm on 25 October 1797 caused damage to the foundations of the centre arches, and the weakened structure collapsed into the river the following day.

Replacement

John Rennie engineered the replacement bridge, which was built between 1800 and 1803, but he had been considering the design since 1798. It was his first major road bridge, and he gave exacting instructions for its construction, advising the trustees to build deep foundations by day labour instead of

contract A contract is an agreement that specifies certain legally enforceable rights and obligations pertaining to two or more parties. A contract typically involves consent to transfer of goods, services, money, or promise to transfer any of thos ...

. The piers were sunk into the

bedrock In geology, bedrock is solid rock that lies under loose material ( regolith) within the crust of Earth or another terrestrial planet. Definition Bedrock is the solid rock that underlies looser surface material. An exposed portion of bed ...

to a depth of using

cofferdam A cofferdam is an enclosure built within a body of water to allow the enclosed area to be pumped out or drained. This pumping creates a dry working environment so that the work can be carried out safely. Cofferdams are commonly used for constru ...

s, this level being around below low water. The cofferdams were kept dry by a pump driven by a

water wheel A water wheel is a machine for converting the kinetic energy of flowing or falling water into useful forms of power, often in a watermill. A water wheel consists of a large wheel (usually constructed from wood or metal), with numerous b ...

on the south bank of the river. The bridge was built by a partnership between John Murray of

Edinburgh Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. The city is located in southeast Scotland and is bounded to the north by the Firth of Forth and to the south by the Pentland Hills. Edinburgh ...

and Robert Lees of

East Lothian East Lothian (; ; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, as well as a Counties of Scotland, historic county, registration county and Lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The county was called Haddingtonshire until 1921. In ...

. It is situated about downstream of the site of the old bridge. The replacement bridge cost , part of which was funded by a government loan. This money was repaid by collecting tolls, which were meant to be collected only until the cost of construction had been repaid, but in 1825 the right to collect tolls was let at per year, making the bridge extremely profitable. The collection of tolls continued until 1854, when there were riots protesting against the failure of the trust that ran the bridge to publish accounts. Soldiers were called from

to restore order, but no ringleaders were caught, and the collection of tolls was abandoned later that year. The bridge was repointed in 1921. In 1956, it was proposed that the bridge be widened, but the Fine Art Commission protested on the grounds that it would upset the architecture of the bridge. By the 1980s the parapets were both leaning outwards, and work was undertaken in 1981 on the upstream side and 1985 on the downstream side to rectify this by demolishing each parapet and rebuilding it plumb. In 1993, a

fire engine A fire engine or fire truck (also spelled firetruck) is a vehicle, usually a specially designed or modified truck, that functions as a firefighting apparatus. The primary purposes of a fire engine include transporting firefighters and water to ...

crashed through the parapet whilst en route to an incident, resulting in the death of the driver. At the north-east end of the bridge is a tollhouse built for the bridge, which, like the bridge itself, is a category A listed building.

Design

The Kelso Bridge has five elliptical arches of span and rise, and is wide between the

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an upward extension of a wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/brea ...

s. A pair of

engaged An engagement or betrothal is the period of time between the declaration of acceptance of a marriage proposal and the marriage itself (which is typically but not always commenced with a wedding). During this period, a couple is said to be ''fi ...

Doric columns The Doric order is one of the three orders of ancient Greek and later Roman architecture; the other two canonical orders were the Ionic and the Corinthian. The Doric is most easily recognized by the simple circular capitals at the top of t ...

rises from the semicircular

cutwater A cutwater is the forward part of the prow or stem of a watercraft around the waterline The waterline is the line where the hull of a ship meets the surface of the water. A waterline can also refer to any line on a ship's hull that is paralle ...

s on each of the piers. The high approach at the south end meant that to keep the deck level, as was Rennie's style, an embankment had to be built at the north end. The design of the Kelso Bridge inspired Rennie's design of the

Waterloo Bridge Waterloo Bridge () is a road and foot traffic bridge crossing the River Thames in London, between Blackfriars Bridge and Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges. Its name commemorates the victory of the British, Dutch and Prussians at the ...

in London. The bridge carries the A699 public road between the north and south of the town. Downstream from the Kelso Bridge is Hunter's Bridge, a concrete viaduct opened in 1998 to direct traffic away from the centre of Kelso.

References

{{River Tweed Category A listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Bridges across the River Tweed Bridges completed in 1803 Bridges in the Scottish Borders Kelso, Scottish Borders 1803 establishments in Scotland