Metal Bridge is a small settlement in
Cumbria
Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...
, England between
Carlisle
Carlisle ( , ; from ) is a city in the Cumberland district of Cumbria, England.
Carlisle's early history is marked by the establishment of a settlement called Luguvalium to serve forts along Hadrian's Wall in Roman Britain. Due to its pro ...
and
Gretna, formerly on the main
A74 road
The A74, also known historically as the Glasgow to Carlisle Road, is a formerly major road in the United Kingdom, linking Glasgow in Scotland to Carlisle, Cumbria, Carlisle in North West England, passing through Clydesdale (district), Clydesdale ...
.
The settlement consists of a few properties clustered around a
public house
A pub (short for public house) is in several countries a drinking establishment licensed to serve alcoholic drinks for consumption Licensing laws of the United Kingdom#On-licence, on the premises. The term first appeared in England in the ...
(now a restaurant) of the same name, on the south bank of the
River Esk, in a corner of
Rockcliffe parish.
The settlement and pub (and nearby
forest plantation
A tree plantation, forest plantation, plantation forest, timber plantation, or tree farm is a forest planted for high volume production of wood, usually by planting one type of tree as a monoculture forest. The term ''tree farm'' also is used to ...
) derive their name from the
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotland, as well ...
designed metal bridge that spanned the river at this point on the road to Scotland.
The
M6 motorway
The M6 motorway is the longest motorway in the United Kingdom. It is located entirely within England, running for just over from the Midlands to the border with Scotland. It begins at Junction 19 of the M1 motorway, M1 and the western end of t ...
extension opened in December 2008 and bypasses the village, replacing the A74 road
dual carriageway as the main route across the
Scottish border.
M6 Carlisle to Guards Mill Extension
References
Hamlets in Cumbria
Rockcliffe, Cumbria
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