Durham Framwellgate Bridge (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Old Bridge; Framagate

In the civil parish of Durham.
In the historic county of Durham.
Modern Authority of Durham.
1974 county of County Durham.
Medieval County of County Palatinate of Durham.

OS Map Grid Reference: NZ27244243
Latitude 54.77605° Longitude -1.57804°

Durham Framwellgate 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

Bridge. Early C15 replacement for early C12 bridge; widened early C19. Coursed squared sandstone with ashlar dressings: 2 wide elliptical arches on south side have 3 chamfers; central cutwater; iron cladding on springing at east end on outer ribs. 7 square ribs. Further cutwater on land at east end, and one land arch visible. Bands at road bed level, dipping to stone drains. Renewed parapet has chamfered coping. 3 C20 cast iron lamps on parapet at each side with founder's mark Bromford Tube Co. (Listed Building Report)

A quarter of a mile below the weir the river is crossed by Framwellgate Bridge, or the Old Bridge, as it was called in mediaeval times to distinguish it from the later Elvet Bridge. This bridge was originally built by Flambard in 1120, but it was swept away by a flood in 1400. For a time a crossing was maintained by a ferry boat, but the present bridge was built in the 15th century by Bishop Langley (1406–37) and was widened in the early part of the 19th century. It consists of two arches, each of 90 ft. span, and was formerly fortified by towers and gates at each end. (VCH)

This is part of the defences of Durham. It is the site of the tower and gate on Framwellgate Bridge. A wall connected the gatehouse to the city wall. The gatehouse was probably strengthened in 1315 and demolished in 1760. (Keys to the Past D1215)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1002351, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number du3
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1322872
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 24464.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D35206; D1215.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Wikipedia entry
  Durham World Heritage Site
  Bridges on the Tyne
Books
- Jervoise, E., 1931, The Ancient Bridges of the North of England (London; The Architectural Press for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) p. 43-4
  Page, Wm (ed), 1928, 'The city of Durham: Rivers, bridges and mills' VCH Durham Vol. 3 (London) p. 62-4 online transcription
  Hutchinson, Wm, 1785-94, The History and Antiquities of the County Palatine of Durham Vol. 2 p. 364 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
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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Don't use metal detectors on historic sites without authorisation.

The information on this web page may be derived from information compiled by and/or copyright of Historic England, County Historic Environment Records and other individuals and organisations. It may also contain information licensed under the Open Government Licence. All the sources given should be consulted to identify the original copyright holder and permission obtained from them before use of the information on this site for commercial purposes.
The author and compiler of Gatehouse does not receive any income from the site and funds it himself. The information within this site is provided freely for educational purposes only.

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.

Please help to make this as useful a resource as possible by contacting Gatehouse if you see errors, can add information or have suggestions for improvements in functality and design.
Help is acknowledged.

*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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