Slater's Bridge is a traditional
packhorse bridge
A packhorse bridge is a bridge intended to carry packhorses ( horses loaded with sidebags or panniers) across a river or stream. Typically a packhorse bridge consists of one or more narrow (one horse wide) masonry arches, and has low parapet ...
in
Little Langdale
Little Langdale is a valley in the Lake District, England, containing Little Langdale Tarn and a hamlet also called Little Langdale. A second tarn, Blea Tarn, is in a hanging valley between Little Langdale and the larger Great Langdale to the n ...
in the English
Lake District, standing at National Grid Reference .
History and construction
The bridge dates back to the 17th century, and became a listed building in 1967.
Built of
slate
Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade regional metamorphism. It is the finest grained foliated metamorphic ro ...
, it consists of a
segmental arch
A segmental arch is a type of arch with a circular arc of less than 180 degrees. It is sometimes also called a scheme arch.
The segmental arch is one of the strongest arches because it is able to resist thrust. To prevent failure, a segmental arc ...
and a flatter span built of slabs, and incorporates a natural boulder in midstream. The bridge is thought to have been created by miners working in the nearby
Tilberthwaite Fells.
Already in the 19th century,
Alexander Craig Gibson
Alexander Craig Gibson (1813–1874) was an English surgeon, folklorist and antiquarian.
Life
Born at Harrington, Cumberland, on 17 March 1813, he was the eldest son of Joseph Gibson by his wife Mary Stuart Craig, from Moffat, Dumfriesshire. He ...
called it "an exquisite and unique specimen of a style of bridge all but extinct"; a century later,
Alfred Wainwright
Alfred Wainwright MBE (17 January 1907 – 20 January 1991), who preferred to be known as A. Wainwright or A.W., was a British fellwalker, guidebook author and illustrator. His seven-volume ''Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells'', published ...
called it "the most picturesque footbridge in Lakeland, a slender arch constructed of slate from the quarries and built to give the quarrymen a shorter access from their homes".
Literary associations
The bridge was acclaimed in a 20th-century poem as "...this/exercise in hanging circularity, toppling stress./The rough slate wedges carry their own likeness/on the belly of each, with the grass springing sidewise/at the joins. The bare arch links two valley sides/as though by a handclasp across the sky's reflection".
See also
*
Ashness Bridge
*
Birks Bridge
Birks Bridge is a traditional stone-built bridge over the River Duddon in the English Lake District, in Dunnerdale-with-Seathwaite, Cumbria, standing at Grid Reference .
History and construction
The bridge was built around the 18th century, w ...
*
Listed buildings in Coniston, Cumbria
Coniston is a civil parish in the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England. It contains 53 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, four are listed at Grade II*, the middle of the three grad ...
References
External links
Slaters Bridge Shoot
Bridges in Cumbria
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