Barnard Castle Bridge (The Gatehouse Record)

In the civil parish of Barnard Castle.
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: NZ04801638
Latitude 54.54271° Longitude -1.92730°

Barnard Castle Bridge has been described as a Fortified Bridge although is doubtful that it was such.

There are major building remains.

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

Description

Bridge over River Tees, formerly on boundary between the counties of Durham and Yorkshire, with adjoining wall and retaining wall along Bridgegate. Probably C14; repaired in 1596 according to re-set inscription: '1596 ER' said to have come from bridge and now in adjoining south-east wall on approach to Bridgegate. Parapets repaired after 1771 flood. Ashlar. 4 wide ribs to each of 2 pointed arches with 3 offsets flanking pointed cutwater; road-bed rises to highest point over eastern arch. Pedestrian refuges over cutwater, that downstream with inscription Y N R for Yorkshire North Riding, since this was the boundary between the counties until 1974. Squinches at north-west and south-east external corners have been renewed. Retaining wall to river bank below Bridgegate has large, wide, pointed relieving arch, possibly associated with the Castle above . (Austin D: Barnard Castle (English Heritage Official guide book): London: 1988-: 35). (Listed Building Report 1201056)
Road bridge, 1569 repaired 1771. Squared stone. Two segmental-pointed triple-stepped arches, the eastern slightly taller, each on 5 square ribs; triangular cutwaters between carried up as pedestrian refuges; later squinch arches carrying C20 widening of appoach road to south-east and north-west. C18 parapets with slightly-arched coping, stepped out from wall faces above the arches; on inner face of parapet in southern refuge are adjacent blocks with incised C.D. and brass-inset Y marking Durham/North Riding boundary. (Listed Building Report 1121647)

Sources of information, references and further reading

National Heritage List for England Scheduled Monument Number 1002353, Legacy Scheduled Monument Number du5
National Heritage List for England Listed Building number(s) 1201056 , 1121647
Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 19886.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) D37161; D34929.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- Bridges on the Tyne
Guidebooks
- Austin, David, 1988, Barnard Castle (London: English Heritage) p. 35
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 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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