The Cliff Bridge, previously known as the Spa Bridge, is a footbridge in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. Spanning the valley from St Nicholas Cliff to The Spa, it was completed in 1827 and is a Grade II listed building. [1]
The bridge has four segmental braced iron arches on plain tapering stone piers with stone abutments; its walkway is 414 feet (126 m) long. It is a rare example of a multiple-span cast iron bridge. [2]
With the discovery of spa waters in Scarborough in the 17th century, the southern part of the town began to receive thousands of visitors. However, although it was easy to access the Spa from the South Bay seafront, a steep descent was required to reach it from the St Nicholas Cliff area of the town. [3]
To give access to original "Spaw" and its mineral spring, the new Cliff Bridge Company was formed in 1826 to lease the Spa from the corporation to maximise its commercial potential by erecting an elegant iron footbridge to span the chasm of the valley from St Nicholas Cliff to the Spa. It is 75 ft (23 m) above the valley, 414 ft (126 m) long and 13.5 ft (4.1 m) wide. [3]
By only the next year, it was completed, though despite its fast speed of construction, it came at a cost of around £7,000 (equivalent to £645,000in 2021), double the original estimate. [4] An opening ceremony was held on 19 July 1827, during which a mail coach was pulled by horses at high speed across the bridge. Much used, it soon became a toll bridge, with a booth erected at the St Nicholas Cliff end of the bridge. For regular users, season tickets were available allowing unlimited access to the bridge and Spa for one, two or four week periods. [3]
In 1951, the Corporation of Scarborough purchased the bridge, removing the tolls and demolishing the toll booth. [3]
Cliff Bridge is recorded in the National Heritage List for England as a Grade II listed building, having been designated on 22 December 1953. [1] Grade II is the lowest of the three grades of listing, and is applied to "buildings that are nationally important and of special interest". [5]
The bridge was closed to the public from November 2009 through to April 2010 for a £700,000 general renovation project, including new timber beams spanning the full width of the bridge, replacement of the main bridge deck and refurbishment and repainting of all metal components. The bridge refurbishment made North Yorkshire County Council one of three principal winners in the 2011 Historic Bridge and Infrastructure Awards. [6]
There are nine bridges across the River Ouse within the city of York, England, and sixteen smaller bridges and passages across the narrower River Foss.
Barmouth Bridge, or Barmouth Viaduct is a Grade II* listed single-track wooden railway viaduct across the estuary of the Afon Mawddach near Barmouth, Wales. It is 820 metres (900 yd) long and carries the Cambrian Line. It is the longest timber viaduct in Wales and one of the oldest in regular use in Britain.
The Iron Bridge is a cast iron arch bridge that crosses the River Severn in Shropshire, England. Opened in 1781, it was the first major bridge in the world to be made of cast iron. Its success inspired the widespread use of cast iron as a structural material, and today the bridge is celebrated as a symbol of the Industrial Revolution.
Chippenham railway station is on the Great Western Main Line (GWML) in South West England, serving the town of Chippenham, Wiltshire. It is 93 miles 76 chains down the line from the zero point at London Paddington and is situated between Swindon and Bath Spa on the GWML. The Wessex Main Line diverges from the GWML to the southwest of Chippenham and runs to Trowbridge via Melksham.
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The British town of Scarborough has had a total of five cliff railways, or funiculars, two of which are presently operational. The town is home to the first funicular railway in the United Kingdom.
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Mythe Bridge carries the A438 road across the River Severn at Tewkesbury. It is a cast-iron arch bridge spanning 170 feet (52 m) and 24 feet (7.3m) wide, designed by Thomas Telford and completed in April 1826. It is a Grade II* listed structure.
Scarborough Spa is a Grade II* listed building in South Bay, Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England. It is a venue for conferences, exhibitions, entertainment, live music and events on the Yorkshire Coast. Originally built around the source of Scarborough's spa waters, it is owned and managed by Scarborough Borough Council.
Widcombe is a district of Bath, England, immediately south-east of the city centre, across the River Avon.
Wilford Toll Bridge, locally referred to as the 'Halfpenny Bridge', is a tram, pedestrian and cycle bridge in Nottingham, England. It crosses the River Trent between the Meadows and Wilford. It originally opened as a toll bridge for general traffic in 1870, but was closed when declared unsafe in 1974. Following demolition of the central span, a narrower footbridge and cycleway was opened in 1980. The bridge was once again widened to accommodate an extension of the Nottingham Express Transit network in 2015.
The Pont-y-Cafnau, sometimes written Pont y Cafnau or Pontycafnau, is a 14.2-metre (47 ft) long iron truss bridge over the River Taff in Merthyr Tydfil, Wales. The bridge was designed by Watkin George and built in 1793 for his employer, the Cyfarthfa Ironworks, to support both a tramway and an aqueduct to carry limestone and water into the works. A Grade II* listed building and Scheduled Ancient Monument, the Pont-y-Cafnau is the world's earliest surviving iron railway bridge.
Victoria Bridge in Bath, England, was built in 1836 across the River Avon. The bridge has been recognised as a Grade II* listed building.
Corby Bridge is a railway viaduct adjacent to and immediately east of Wetheral railway station at Wetheral, near Carlisle, in north-western England, begun in 1830 and completed in 1834. It is 920 feet (280 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) high, and has been a grade I listed building since 1 April 1957.
Blackfriars Bridge is a stone arch bridge in Greater Manchester, England. Completed in 1820, it crosses the River Irwell, connecting Salford to Manchester.
Dutton Horse Bridge is a timber twin-span footbridge across part of the Weaver navigation, near the villages of Acton Bridge and Dutton in Cheshire, England. The bridge is located at SJ 583 767, between the Dutton Locks and Dutton Viaduct. It carries the towpath across a subsidiary channel used to regulate the water level, at the point where it rejoins the main river.
The South Portland Street Suspension Bridge is a suspension-type footbridge across the River Clyde in Glasgow, Scotland linking the City Centre on the north side to the Laurieston and Gorbals districts on the south side.
The Central Tramway Company is an electric-powered funicular railway located in the holiday resort of Scarborough, North Yorkshire. The company has the distinction of being the oldest surviving Tramway Company in the UK, as the original corporation still operates the funicular today. Built in just 6 months between January and August 1881, the Tramway opened on Monday 1 August becoming the 3rd such cliff railway to operate in the borough.
Scarborough Town Hall, originally St Nicholas House, is a red brick Jacobean Revival mansion in Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England, currently used as a municipal building for the Borough of Scarborough and an events venue. It was built in the 19th century as a home for John Woodall, a prominent local businessman, and then converted and extended for municipal use in 1903. Situated overlooking the South Bay, it is a grade II listed building.
Penwortham Old Bridge is a toll-free, five-span bridge over the River Ribble at Preston, Lancashire, England. A Grade II listed structure and a Scheduled monument, located about a mile southwest of the centre of the city, it crosses the river to Penwortham. Today the bridge no longer carries motorised traffic.
Media related to Cliff Bridge, Scarborough at Wikimedia Commons
