Stramongate Bridge

Extending over the river Kent between Stramongate and Wildman Street (NGR 351855 492972 Lat/Long 54.330039, -2.741790)

Curwen, 1900

In the pre-reformation episcopal registers there is an entry, dated 1379, concerning "De ponte de Strowmondgate," in which the bishop offers an indulgence to all who shall adequately contribute to the building of the bridge which spanned the Kent, in the parish of Kirkby Kendall, in the Diocese of York. This is an interesting extract, as it shows that there was a bridge across the Kent at a very early date. Two centuries later the bridge seems to have been in a very dilapidated condition, and required the following precautions to be taken by the authorities, Vide Boke off Recorde, 21st December 1582:- "Itm it is ordeyned and constitutyd by the Aldermen and Head Burgesses aforesayd wth the ffull advise & assent aswell of the xxiiijjti sworn assistantes as off most p'te off the honest Inhabitantes heare that no maner of p'son or p'sons frome henceforthe shall or may, either drawe or trayle any tymber or other draughte whatsoever either by strengthe of horses or other catall or by the power of men (above one only beast draught at any one tyme) Over either of the Brydges called stramangt or nether brydge Sub pen for fac toc qoc xijd. thone halff therof to the Chamber & the other halff to the Brigtolers."

Advert

STRAMONGATE BRIDGE IN KENDAL. The rebuilding of the said Bridge will be Let at the Coffee House in Kendal, on Wednesday, the 5th Day of June, 1776, agreeable to a Plan then to be produced. For Particulars in the mean time, apply to Mr. JOHN BRACKEN, High Constable, or to Mr. JOHN SHUTT, in Kendal.

This work could not have been carried out immediately, for West, in his Guide to the Lakes published some two years later, speaks of the bridge as "more venerable than handsome." Indeed from the following advertisement it would seem that the first undertaking was not entered into at all:-

Advert

STRAMONGATE BRIDGE. To be Let, at Mr Maskew's, the Coffee House in Kendal, on Thursday, the 22nd Day of September, 1791, the finding Materials, taking down and re-building Stramongate Bridge over the River Kent in Kendal, after a Design of Mr. Harrison's of Lancaster, consisting of Three Eliptical Arches, which may be seen at the Printing Office in Kendal. The Two End Arches to span Forty-five feet, and the Centre Arch Fifty Feet. The Carriage and Foot Roads to be Thirty feet within the Battlements. To be well and substantially executed and to be upheld for Seven Years.

Hitherto this narrow pass, which formed, by the way, the main post road from north to south, and the only certain communication from Scotland to the busiest and most populous parts of Western England, was so extremely narrow and steep at its approaches that numerous accidents occurred in crossing it, especially with the heavy lumbering coaches of the day.

Curiously, however, it was not doomed to destruction, for when the work was set about to widen it in the following year and the decayed crust removed, it was found that, unlike the crazy exterior, it was within so firmly cemented that nothing short of blasting could have removed such solid work.

A look at this remarkable bridge from beneath the first arch on the eastern side will fully repay the curious observer. It will be at once noticed that the bridge, as it now is, is really three distinct bridges, the old one being in the centre and not much wider than either of its outside neighbours with which it is not connected otherwise than by juxta-position. The date of 1793-4 was inscribed upon the bridge in two places.