Ribchester Bridge

About

Ribchester Bridge is a toll-free, three-span bridge over the River Ribble near Ribchester, Lancashire, England. A Grade II listed structure about 0.75 miles (1.21 km) east of the village, it actually crosses the river between the civil parishes of Clayton-le-Dale and Dutton. The bridge carries the two-lane traffic of the B6245 Ribchester Road.

Thought to have been constructed in 1774, it is built of sandstone and consists of three segmental arches on triangular cutwaters, with a string course and a solid parapet. The bridge has an overall length 71.8 metres (236 ft) and width of 6.8 metres (22 ft) (deck plus 300-millimetre (12 in)-wide parapets). The central span in the largest at 23.2 metres (76 ft) with a rise of 5.5 metres (18 ft), with the others of differing, slightly smaller dimensions.

This point on the river is above the tidal limit, the banks approximately 27 metres (90 ft) above the Ordnance datum. It has been an important crossing for millennia with the Roman fort here positioned to guard it; however, the origin of the earliest bridge is uncertain. The current bridge's predecessor had been constructed in 1669.

William Stukeley in his Itinerarium Curiosum, published in 1721...