Chester Dee Bridge (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Handbridge

In the civil parish of Chester.
In the historic county of Cheshire.
Modern Authority of Cheshire.
1974 county of Cheshire.
Medieval County of Cheshire.

OS Map Grid Reference: SJ40706576
Latitude 53.18523° Longitude -2.88844°

Chester Dee Bridge has been described as a certain Fortified Bridge.

There are masonry footings remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 1 listed building protected by law*.

Description

Road bridge over River Dee. Late C14, altered 1826. Red sandstone. 7 arches, from north to south: a pair of segmental arches north of diagonal weir; serving leat to former Mills of Dee then by hydro-electric power station; cutwater at weir, then plain abutment to first, parabolic, river arch; cutwater; pointed arch with moulded arris; cutwater; narrower arch with moulded arris; cutwater; broad segmental arch with moulded arris; bottom stage forming rectangular projection upstream for former gate-tower; large cutwater; narrow segmental arch probably in place of former drawbridge. The bridge was widened, upstream, in 1826, to provide a footway, partly corbelled. The present bridge replaced earlier medieval bridges, probably of timber, and is believed to stand on the site of a Roman bridge. (Listed Building Report)

The Old Dee Bridge was originally the only crossing over the Dee at Chester. The present bridge is thought to have been built from 1387. It comprises seven masonry arches of varying size. There was a gatehouse on the southernmost pier possibly with a drawbridge. The southernmost arch was rebuilt in 1499-1500 perhaps replacing the drawbridge. The gatehouse was demolished in 1781.
Trial pits were excavated over the crowns of arches 3 to 7 revealing an interesting variation in deposits under the base of the modern carriageway. In arch 5, there was a substantial surface of river cobbles. It is tempting to consider this cobble surface as the original medieval road over the bridge. It is curious that whatever its date and even though it is the central arch, this surface must have lain lower than the roadway over the adjacent arches. (Med. Arch. 2000)

25th July 11 Richard II 1387
Letters Patent by the King granting his profits from the Passage of the River Dee and the Murage, formerly granted for the City walls, to be received for the repair of the ruined bridge over the river.
Given at Chester Castle.
Appended is the seal of the King's Chester Exchequer.
Footnote:
Murage was a toll granted by the Earls of Chester to be levied on certain goods entering the city to be used for the repair of the walls and streets (City of Chester Charters ZCH/20)
5th March 8 Henry IV 1407
Letters Patent by Henry, Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester, granting the expenditure of the Murage to be received for the next five years to be spent one half on the walls and one half on the completion of the tower on the Dee Bridge which was begun in the time of Richard II.
Given at Chester.
Fragment of the Prince's seal of the Chester Exchequer remains attached, Cast of reverse (City of Chester Charters ZCH/25)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1006771, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number ch17
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1375850
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 69114.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 11103.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Chester A virtual stroll around the walls
  Wikipedia entry
  Matthew Emmott's Castle Blog
Books
- Ward, Simon, 2009, Chester: A History (Chichester: Phillimore) p. 56
  Langtree, Stephen and Comyns, Alan (eds), 2001, 2000 Years of Building: Chester's Architectural Legacy (Chester: Chester Civic Trust) p. 84-5
  Boughton, P., 1997, Picturesque Chester: the City in art (Chichester: Pillimore) figs 1 and 2 (on old pictures)
  Chester, B., 1979, Bartholomew City Guides: Chester (Edinburgh) p. 136
  Pevsner, Nikolaus and Edward Hubbard, 1971, Buildings of England: Cheshire (Harmondsworth) p. 157-8
  Simpson, Frank, 1910, The Walls of Chester p. 63
  Morris, R.H., 1894, Chester in the Plantagenet and Tudor Reigns p. 230-1 online copy
Periodical Articles
- Harrison, D., McKeague, P. and Watson, B., 2010, 'England's fortified medieval bridges and bridge chapels: a new survey' Medieval Settlement Research Vol. 25 p. 45-51 online copy
  2000, 'Medieval Britain and Ireland in 1999' Medieval Archaeology Vol. 44 p. 256 online copy
  Stewart-Brown, R., 1933, 'The Old Dee Bridge' _Journal of the Chester and North Wales Architectural Archaeological and Historic Society Vol. 30.2 p. 64-78
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- City of Chester Charters ZCH/20 (held in Cheshire Archives)
  City of Chester Charters ZCH/25 (held in Cheshire Archives)
  Morris, R.H., 1894, Chester in the Plantagenet and Tudor Reigns p. 503, 508-9 online copy
Antiquarian (Histories and accounts from late medieval and early modern writers)
- Speed, John, 1611-12, The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britain online copy
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Bruce Watson, 2013 Sept, Gazetteer of fortified bridges (working list kindly shared with Gatehouse)

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

The possible site or monument is represented on maps as a point location. This is a guide only. It should be noted that OS grid references defines an area, not a point location. In practice this means the actual center of the site or monument may often, but not always, be to the North East of the point shown. Locations derived from OS grid references and from latitude longitiude may differ by a small distance.
Further information on mapping and location can be seen at this link.

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*The listed building may not be the actual medieval building, but a building on the site of, or incorporating fragments of, the described site.

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