Holman's Bridge is a brick-built

bridge A bridge is a structure built to span a physical obstacle (such as a body of water, valley, road, or rail) without blocking the way underneath. It is constructed for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle, which is usually somethi ...

on the A413 to the north of

Aylesbury Aylesbury ( ) is the county town of Buckinghamshire, South East England. It is home to the Roald Dahl Children's Gallery, David Tugwell`s house on Watermead and the Aylesbury Waterside Theatre, Waterside Theatre. It is in central Buckinghamsh ...

Buckinghamshire Buckinghamshire (), abbreviated Bucks, is a ceremonial county in South East England that borders Greater London to the south-east, Berkshire to the south, Oxfordshire to the west, Northamptonshire to the north, Bedfordshire to the north-eas ...

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 ...

. It is where the

A413 road The A413 is a major road in England that runs between Gerrards Cross (west of London) to Towcester (northwest of Milton Keynes). It passes through or near various towns and villages including (in northbound order) Amersham, Great Missenden, W ...

crosses the

River Thame The River Thame is a river in Southern England. A tributary of the River Thames, the river runs generally south-westward for about from its source above the Buckinghamshire town of Aylesbury to the Thames in south-east Oxfordshire. Course ...

. Aylesbury's first Charter of Incorporation in 1554 marked Holman's Bridge as the northernmost boundary of the town.

History

It was the location, in 1642, of the

Battle of Aylesbury The Battle of Aylesbury was an engagement which took place on 1 November 1642, when Royalist forces, under the command of Prince Rupert, fought Aylesbury's Parliamentarian garrison at Holman's Bridge a few miles to the north of Aylesbury. T ...

, where although heavily outnumbered a Parliamentarian garrison under Sir William Balfour took the town of Aylesbury from the

Royalist A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governm ...

forces of

Prince Rupert Prince Rupert of the Rhine, Duke of Cumberland, (17 December 1619 (O.S.) / 27 December (N.S.) – 29 November 1682 (O.S.)) was an English army officer, admiral, scientist and colonial governor. He first came to prominence as a Royalist cava ...

. After the battle the bodies of the dead were thrown into a common grave near the bridge. In 1818 they were exhumed and their bones moved to a common grave in nearby Hardwick. In 2006 work began to add a wooden pedestrian bridge alongside the existing bridge to provide pedestrian access to the new Weedon Hill housing estate. The housing development is controversially being built on the tract of land where the battle took place.BBC coverage of controversy over the Weedon Hill housing development
/ref>

References

External links

Image of the common grave in Hardwick at Buckinghamshire Photographs
Aylesbury Bridges in Buckinghamshire {{UK-bridge-struct-stub