Chester New Bridge is a

Grade II* listed In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

stone bridge over the

River Wear The River Wear (, ) in North East England rises in the Pennines and flows eastwards, mostly through County Durham to the North Sea in the City of Sunderland. At long, it is one of the region's longest rivers, wends in a steep valley through ...

near

Chester-le-Street Chester-le-Street (), also known as Chester, is a market town and civil parish in County Durham, England, around north of Durham and also close to Sunderland and Newcastle upon Tyne. It is located on the River Wear, which runs out to sea ...

County Durham County Durham ( ), officially simply Durham,UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. is a ceremonial county in North East England.North East Assembly �About North East E ...

, England. It carries Black Drive, the private entrance road to

Lambton Castle Lambton Castle stands above Chester-le-Street, County Durham and is a stately home, the ancestral seat of the Lambton family, the Earls of Durham. It is listed in the mid-category of listed building, Grade II*. History Largely constructed ...

, across the Wear just north of the A1052 road bridge, which superseded it in 1926. Frank Graham in ''Bridges of Northumberland and Durham'' describes it as "a fine 14th century bridge" but the official

English Heritage English Heritage (officially the English Heritage Trust) is a charity that manages over 400 historic monuments, buildings and places. These include prehistoric sites, medieval castles, Roman forts and country houses. The charity states that i ...

listing citation considers it to be "probably C15". The parapet, which English Heritage suggest may be partly rebuilt, bears a worn inscription referring to "Charles Swinburne's Leap", an incident in which a horse and its rider were killed falling from the bridge. The bridge has a span of approximately and four pointed arches with cutwaters on each pier. An archway at its eastern end, erected in 1815 by Ignatius Bonomi, marks the entrance to the Lambton Estate.

References

Grade II* listed buildings in County Durham Bridges across the River Wear Scheduled monuments in County Durham Grade II* listed bridges in England Chester-le-Street {{Durham-geo-stub