The Ladykirk and Norham Bridge connects Ladykirk in the

Borders A border is a geographical boundary. Border, borders, The Border or The Borders may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Film and television * ''Border'' (1997 film), an Indian Hindi-language war film * ''Border'' (2018 Swedish film), ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

, with

Norham Norham ( ) is a village and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south-west of Berwick on the south side of the River Tweed where it is the border with Scotland. History Its ancient name was Ubbanford. Ecgred of Lindisfarne (d.845) replac ...

Northumberland Northumberland ( ) is a ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in North East England, on the Anglo-Scottish border, border with Scotland. It is bordered by the North Sea to the east, Tyne and Wear and County Durham to the south, Cumb ...

England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

, 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 ...

. It's one of three bridges that cross it along the

Anglo-Scottish Border The Anglo-Scottish border runs for between Marshall Meadows Bay on the east coast and the Solway Firth in the west, separating Scotland and England. The Firth of Forth was the border between the Picto- Gaelic Kingdom of Alba and the Angli ...

, the others being the

Coldstream Bridge Coldstream Bridge, linking Coldstream, Scottish Borders with Cornhill-on-Tweed, Northumberland, is an 18th-century Category A/Grade II* listed bridge between England and Scotland, across the River Tweed. The bridge carries the A697 road acros ...

and the

Union Chain Bridge The Union Chain Bridge or Union Bridge is a suspension bridge that spans the River Tweed between Horncliffe, Northumberland, England and Fishwick, Berwickshire, Scotland. It is upstream of Berwick-upon-Tweed. When it opened in 1820 it was the ...

; out of these, the Ladykirk and Norham Bridge is the youngest, opening to the public in 1888.

Earlier bridges

The previous bridge was a timber trestle built between 1838 and 1839 by J. Blackmore. The bridge was funded by subscribers purchasing

shares In financial markets, a share (sometimes referred to as stock or equity) is a unit of equity ownership in the capital stock of a corporation. It can refer to units of mutual funds, limited partnerships, and real estate investment trusts. Sha ...

;

David Robertson, 1st Baron Marjoribanks David Robertson, 1st Baron Marjoribanks (2 April 1797 – 19 June 1873), was a Scottish stockbroker and politician. Background Born David Marjoribanks, he was the fourth son of Sir John Marjoribanks, 1st Baronet, MP and Lord Provost of Edinbur ...

paid £3000, and ten others paid £500 each. This bridge used curved ribs eight planks deep at the ends and three planks deep in the middle, where each individual plank is deep. These were used to create two arches, each of span and rise, each arch was supported by two trusses. The planks were long, and no piece of timber in the bridge was longer than . The roadway was wide. The entire bridge was restored in 1852, with the exception of the stone piers.

History

Construction of the present stone bridge lasted from 1885 to 1887. The bridge is listed at

grade II In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, a battlefield, medieval castles, Roman forts, historic industrial sites, Lis ...

and at category B by

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage and promoting its und ...

. A former toll house - Lower Toll Cottage and a bridge marker stone sit immediately on the Scottish side. It was designed by

Thomas Codrington Thomas Codrington (1829 in Wroughton, Wiltshire – 1918) was a British engineer and antiquarian of the late Victorian era. With a career background as an Inspector for local government, he published several known works. First was ''Report on t ...

and Cuthbert A. Brereton for the Tweed Bridges Trust.

Design

It is a late stone road

arch bridge An arch bridge is a bridge with abutments at each end shaped as a curved arch. Arch bridges work by transferring the weight of the bridge and its structural load, loads partially into a horizontal thrust restrained by the abutments at either si ...

with four spans. The two middle arches are of span, and the outer two of span, and the width of the roadway between the parapets is . The outer piers have triangular cutwaters, but the central pier has a curved cutwater that continues up to the height of the road, with a break in the parapet to create a refuge for pedestrians. The bridge uses dressed-stone for the arch rings, and has coursed-rubble

spandrel A spandrel is a roughly triangular space, usually found in pairs, between the top of an arch and a rectangular frame, between the tops of two adjacent arches, or one of the four spaces between a circle within a square. They are frequently fil ...

s and

wing wall A wing wall (also "wingwall" or "wing-wall") is a smaller wall attached or next to a larger wall or structure. Bridges In a bridge, the wing walls are adjacent to the abutments and act as retaining walls. They are generally constructed of the same ...

s. It is built from red

sandstone Sandstone is a Clastic rock#Sedimentary clastic rocks, clastic sedimentary rock composed mainly of grain size, sand-sized (0.0625 to 2 mm) silicate mineral, silicate grains, Cementation (geology), cemented together by another mineral. Sand ...

, and faced with

ashlar Ashlar () is a cut and dressed rock (geology), stone, worked using a chisel to achieve a specific form, typically rectangular in shape. The term can also refer to a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, a ...

dressings. The

s are hollow to reduce the load on the arches, an innovation by

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...

. The bridge carries the B6470 public road between the villages of Ladykirk in Scotland and

in England. It is just downstream from Canny Island, a

river island River Island (stylised as RiverIsland and abbreviated as RI) is a London-based, multi-channel fashion brand, founded in 1948 by Bernard Lewis (entrepreneur), Bernard Lewis. The retailer has a presence in over 125 of worldwide markets, in stores ...

in the Tweed. Canny Island and the Tweed - geograph

References

{{River Tweed Bridges across the River Tweed Grade II listed bridges Grade II listed buildings in Northumberland Category B listed buildings in the Scottish Borders Listed bridges in Scotland Bridges in the Scottish Borders Bridges completed in 1887 Anglo-Scottish border 1887 establishments in Scotland Norham