Cavendish Bridge

About

Cavendish Bridge is a bridge over the River Trent, connecting the counties of Leicestershire and Derbyshire; it is also the name of a hamlet on the Leicestershire side of the river within the Castle Donington parish. This bridge once carried the main London-Manchester turnpike, though the modern A6/A50 dual carriageway has now been built to the south bypassing the crossing. Archaeological investigations in the Hemington Fields quarry, revealed that three wooden bridges were destroyed by floods between 1140 and 1309.

They were replaced by a ferry service in 1310. In the late 1750s, the construction of a new bridge was decided, with the bridge designed by James Paine. The construction material was sandstone transported down river from the quarry at Weston-on-Trent.

The bridge was opened in 1760 and took its name from the patron of the scheme, William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire. The crossing remained in use until the major flood of March 1947, when one of the piers was washed away and the centre of the bridge collapsed into the river. A new concrete version of the Cavendish bridge was erected in 1957.