Norwich Bishop Bridge (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Norwich.
In the historic county of Norfolk.
Modern Authority of Norfolk.
1974 county of Norfolk.
Medieval County of Norfolk.

OS Map Grid Reference: TG23990899
Latitude 52.63241° Longitude 1.30856°

Norwich Bishop Bridge has been described as a certain Fortified Bridge.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law.
This is a Grade 2* listed building protected by law*.

Description

Bridge, the oldest in Norwich, built circa 1340; originally maintained by the bishops but the city given control in 1393. There is a reference to a gate built on the bridge in 1343 and a plan of circa 1650 shows a rectangular tower occupying almost the entire western half of the bridge. The gate has since been demolished. (PastScape)

Bridge. Circa 1340 onwards. Flint with brick dressings. Stone and brick. 3 spans of segmental stone arches on piers. Parapet with semi-circular return at west end and wrought-iron lamp-standard on north side. (Listed Building Report)

Was so called because it led directly to the Bishop's palace, and in 1249 belonged to the see; it being then repaired by the Bishop and Priors of Norwich and St. Leonard, but afterwards being a general inlet also into the city, it was agreed to be in the citizen's hands, and accordingly it hath belonged to, and been maintained by, the city, ever since 1393, and they always appointed a porter to live over, and keep the gates; but the hermit which dwelt by them was always nominated by the prior, and the hermit's house, at the Dissolution, was assigned to the church. (Blomefield)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1004056, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number nf8
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1205642
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 132394.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) 617.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Broadland Memories
Books
- Labrun, E.A., 1994, Civil Engineering Heritage: Eastern and Central England (Thomas Telford Ltd) p. 120
  Jervoise, E., 1932, The Ancient Bridges of the Midlands and Eastern England (London; The Architectural Press for the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings) p. 121-2
  Hannah, I.C., 1914, The Heart of East Anglia: the story of Norwich from earliest to latest times p. 81
  Blyth, G.K., 1842, The Norwich Guide and Directory
  Blomefield, F., 1806, An Essay towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk Vol. 4 p. 402 online transcription
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
  Gurney, D. and Penn, K., 1999, 'Excavations and Surveys in Norfolk 1998' Norfolk Archaeology Vol 43.2 p. 380
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Hudson, W. and Tingey, J.C.(eds), 1869, The Records of the City of Norwich (Norwich: Jarrold and Sons) Vol. 2 p. 217 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)

Most of the sites or buildings recorded in this web site are NOT open to the public and permission to visit a site must always be sought from the landowner or tenant.
It is an offence to disturb a Scheduled Monument without consent. It is a destruction of everyone's heritage to remove archaeological evidence from ANY site without proper recording and reporting.
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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