North Bridge, Halifax is a Victorian iron and stone bridge at

Halifax, West Yorkshire Halifax () is a minster and market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale in West Yorkshire, England. It is the commercial, cultural and administrative centre of the borough, and the headquarters of Calderdale Council. In the 15th cen ...

, in northern

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. It crosses the valley of the

River Hebble A river is a natural flowing watercourse, usually freshwater, flowing towards an ocean, sea, lake or another river. In some cases, a river flows into the ground and becomes dry at the end of its course without reaching another body of wa ...

, connecting the town to roads to

Bradford Bradford is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Bradford district in West Yorkshire, England. The city is in the Pennines' eastern foothills on the banks of the Bradford Beck. Bradford had a population of 349,561 at the 2011 ...

and

Leeds Leeds () is a city and the administrative centre of the City of Leeds district in West Yorkshire, England. It is built around the River Aire and is in the eastern foothills of the Pennines. It is also the third-largest settlement (by populati ...

. Replacing an earlier six arch stone bridge it was raised to allow the subsequent construction of the

Halifax High Level Railway The Queensbury lines was the name given to a number of railway lines in West Yorkshire, England, that linked Bradford, Halifax and Keighley via Queensbury. All the lines were either solely owned by the Great Northern Railway (GNR) or jointly ...

under it with an adjoining station. Opened in 1871 amid chaotic crowd scenes it carried increasingly heavy traffic until it was by-passed by the Burdock Way in 1973. It remains in use for local traffic.

Earlier bridges

The earliest record of a wooden bridge over the

is in 1277. A stone bridge recorded in 1719 collapsed on

Rogation Day Rogation days are days of prayer and fasting in Western Christianity. They are observed with processions and the Litany of the Saints. The so-called ''major'' rogation is held on 25 April; the ''minor'' rogations are held on Monday to Wednesday ...

in April 1770 during a

beating the bounds Beating the bounds or perambulating the bounds is an ancient custom still observed in parts of England, Wales, and the New England region of the United States, which traditionally involved swatting local landmarks with branches to maintain a shared ...

ceremony causing many injuries. Matthew Oates of

Northowram Northowram () is a village in Calderdale, West Yorkshire, England that stands to the east of Halifax on the north side of Shibden valley. Southowram stands on the southern side of the valley. The village was documented in the 19th century as ...

began work on a new bridge in 1772, using stone from quarries in Crib Lane. This long six-arch bridge, wide and above the river, which carried the

turnpike road A toll road, also known as a turnpike or tollway, is a public or private road (almost always a controlled-access highway in the present day) for which a fee (or ''toll'') is assessed for passage. It is a form of road pricing typically implemented ...

was opened in 1774. There was a toll-booth at the north end. Iron palisades were fitted after a Mr Asquith of

Hipperholme Hipperholme is a village in West Yorkshire, England, located between the towns of Halifax and Brighouse in the Hipperholme and Lightcliffe ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Calderdale. The population of this ward at the 2011 Census was 11,3 ...

was pushed from the bridge and killed by an unknown attacker in 1819. Part of this bridge collapsed because of flash flooding on 23 July 1855. It was demolished in 1870 to make way for the new bridge.

Design and construction

North Bridge was designed in

Victorian Gothic Gothic Revival (also referred to as Victorian Gothic, neo-Gothic, or Gothick) is an architectural movement that began in the late 1740s in England. The movement gained momentum and expanded in the first half of the 19th century, as increasingly ...

style by brothers John and James Fraser of Leeds. John had considerable experience of railway bridge design. Two spans of semi-elliptical arch ribs are supported by stone piers with ecclesiastical style buttresses, carrying a wide roadway. There are lancets in the

spandrels 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 fill ...

. The parapets are richly decorated with quatre-foil piercings with central

Maltese cross The Maltese cross is a cross symbol, consisting of four " V" or arrowhead shaped concave quadrilaterals converging at a central vertex at right angles, two tips pointing outward symmetrically. It is a heraldic cross variant which developed f ...

es and tri-foil pattern railings above with a

crenellated A battlement in defensive architecture, such as that of city walls or castles, comprises a parapet (i.e., a defensive low wall between chest-height and head-height), in which gaps or indentations, which are often rectangular, occur at interva ...

top rail. The mainly

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...

parapet ribs have a

wrought iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag Inclusion (mineral), inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a ...

central section of . The central pier stands high and the bridge was built higher than its predecessor so that the Halifax and Ovenden Joint Railway could pass underneath the northern end. North Bridge Station was just east of the bridge, extending under it. A drinking fountain, named for James Oates who worked on the bridge, is set into the south west turret of the bridge. The cost of the bridge was £21,000 or 17

shillings The shilling is a historical coin, and the name of a unit of modern currencies formerly used in the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, other British Commonwealth countries and Ireland, where they were generally equivalent to 12 pence or ...

and six

pence A penny is a coin ( pennies) or a unit of currency (pl. pence) in various countries. Borrowed from the Carolingian denarius (hence its former abbreviation d.), it is usually the smallest denomination within a currency system. Presently, it is th ...

per square foot of roadway, claimed to be the cheapest bridge in England at the time.

Opening ceremony

The bridge was opened on 25 October 1871 amid scenes of confusion as local people, given a half-day holiday, swarmed over the bridge well in advance of the official opening by the mayor. The mayor and corporation and the borough's MP, together with the Halifax Artillery and Rifle Volunteers and a detachment of the 2nd West Yorkshire Yeomanry, formed a procession at the town hall at about 3 pm. The police had cleared some space at the southern end of the bridge, but by the time an advance party of yeomanry reached the bridge the crowds had reoccupied it. Twenty

dragoon Dragoons were originally a class of mounted infantry, who used horses for mobility, but dismounted to fight on foot. From the early 17th century onward, dragoons were increasingly also employed as conventional cavalry and trained for combat w ...

s were drawn up across the southern entrance of the bridge to hold the crowds back. A ceremony was then held which included the town's MP Sir James Stansfeld,

Lord Frederick Cavendish Lord Frederick Charles Cavendish (30 November 1836 – 6 May 1882) was an English Liberal politician and ''protégé'' of the Prime Minister, William Ewart Gladstone. Cavendish was appointed Chief Secretary for Ireland in May 1882 but was m ...

, Colonel Akroyd, the mayors of Bradford,

and

Wakefield Wakefield is a cathedral city in West Yorkshire, England located on the River Calder. The city had a population of 99,251 in the 2011 census.https://www.nomisweb.co.uk/census/2011/ks101ew Census 2011 table KS101EW Usual resident population, ...

, the Master Cutler of

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

, the

Town Clerk A clerk is a senior official of many municipal governments in the English-speaking world. In some communities, including most in the United States, the position is elected, but in many others, the clerk is appointed to their post. In the UK, a To ...

of Leeds and the bridge engineers. This concluded with an artillery salute.

Trams

Starting in 1898 tram lines began to be extended from Halifax along the

Calder Valley Calder is a Scottish name and may refer to: People *Calder (surname) *Calder baronets, two baronetcies created for people with the surname Calder *Alexander Calder (1898-1976), the American sculptor known for his mobiles, son of Alexander Stirlin ...

including lines running over the bridge. The steep terrain of the area was not ideal for trams and there were several fatal accidents. In 1906, an eight-ton double decker tram ran out of control down New Bank, Halifax, and overturned on North Bridge, killing two people and injuring 11 others.

Modern times

A weight restriction of seven tons was applied to the bridge in 1968, until strengthening work had been completed. Since Burdock Way, the modern flyover system, was opened in 1973 to take the A58 and A629 traffic over the River Hebble North Bridge remains in use for local traffic.

References

External links

{{commons category, North Bridge, Halifax
A print of the former North Bridge, pre-1864, seen from Haley Hill, drawn by J R Smith
retrieved 13 January 2010 Buildings and structures in Halifax, West Yorkshire Bridges in West Yorkshire Bridges completed in 1871 Transport in Calderdale Former toll bridges in England Cast-iron arch bridges in England