The LONGEST stone bridge in England - Swarkestone Bridge, want to drive across it?

This video is about a local bridge.
Swarkestone Bridge and Causeway is the longest stone bridge in England. It is 1.2 Kilometres long (¾ of a mile).

Perhaps you drive over this bridge and spare little thought for it, Perhaps you should as its a Grade one listed Ancient Monument, built in the 13th/14th century and its being destroyed by todays heavy traffic.

A website has even been setup to try and raise public awareness to its declining condition.
http://www.swarkestone-derby.co.uk

The bridge starts next to the Crewe and Harpur Arms at Swarkestone and travels for just under one mile to the village of Stanton by Bridge.

The bridge that goes over the River Trent was rebuilt in 1797, the remains of the original bridge were washed away but the foundations probably remain which is why its very rough water below the bridge.
The rest of the bridge (The Causeway) still survives to this day and winds its way across the marshy wetlands.

According to local legend, the building of Swarkestone Bridge in the 13th century is attributable to two sisters who saw their lovers drowned trying to cross the River Trent on horseback.
They crossed the flooded meadows safely, but then either missed the ford altogether, or were swept off by the strong current. The horrified sisters saw all this happen through a hall window and vowed to ensure no else met the same fate.
They spent the rest of their lives building the bridge and died penniless as a result.

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Some details about my video :

00:00 This is a view of the part of the bridge that goes over the river Trent, this part was built in 1797. To the right of the bridge is the Crewe and Harpur Arms. To the left is the Causeway part of the bridge.

00:10 Time-lapse sequence I shot showing how much traffic uses this bridge. This sequence is made from 959 individual photographs which I took on Thursday 22nd May 2008, the first frame was taken at 15:48:22 and the last one at 16:03:18. If you were on the bridge in this time window then you will be in this time-lapse sequence.

00:48 Photographs showing the bridge from many angles. Its such a long bendy bridge its hard to capture the sheer size of it in one photograph.

01:24 A real-time drive from Swarkestone to Stanton-by-bridge.
01:38 The road on the right leads to the hamlet of Ingleby, where you will find the John Thompson pub.

02:02 The bus mounts the curb !!! No wonder this poor bridge is crumbling away.

02:42 Narrow bit which you have to be aware of as you can end up hitting someone.

03:16 Very Narrow bit.
03:34 End of the bridge so time to do a u-turn and go back in the other direction...

03:48 A real-time drive from Stanton-by-bridge to Swarkestone.

05:26 A few photos showing the type of heavy vehicles that this bridge has to cope with.

05:39 END
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For a great Birds eye view of the bridge see the link below. You can drag the view left to follow the route of the bridge
all the way to Stanton by Bridge :
http://maps.live.com/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=st7x63gwbz2t&...

For more info on Swarkestone see my page :
http://www.derbyphotos.co.uk/areas_p_z/swarkestone.htm

For more info on Stanton by Bridge see my page:
http://www.derbyphotos.co.uk/areas_p_z/stanton_by_bridge.htm

Hope you enjoy my short video on this great bridge. Please rate and comment if you enjoyed it.

Thanks

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Swarkestone
• Bridge
• Causeway
• longest
• stone
• England
• Stanton
• Ancient
• Monument
• Bonnie
• Prince
• Charlie
• derbyphotos
• drive
• car

[clearly]

There is actually more to this story. An internet friend from Canada "Saskatoon" sent me a picture and asked if I knew this bridge. I said "Yes, its Swarkestone bridge,I know it well. Then she showed me another picture of the bridge which is engraved on her Fathers gravestone in Canada.. Amazing coincidence eh?

[comedyhunter]

@clearly Strange, Why is it on a gravestone in Canada?

[clearly]

I have driven across it hundreds of times. "Comedyhunter" is right. Many a time i've nearly hit a car,or the bridge!

The story I heard was that it was built on layers of straw because it kept on sinking into the marsh.

Five stars for the memories

[comedyhunter]

@clearly Thanks, glad it brought back memories for you. I have lots of Derbyshire driving vidoes, check em out.

Andy

[hastie9]

Great stuff mate.All the best from Scotland

[comedyhunter]

Cheers and I like your O`Balgownie bridge video.

[wendty1997]

haaa the fantastic view of my school bus at about 1:30 hehe :D

[clearly]

because @comedyhunter her Father was from Derby! He must have had some connection to the bridge. I will ask her when we speak again, She did send me a picture of the gravestone which is why I was able to name it.

[mazzi14]

my sailing club is swarkestone!

[mikieboy70]

fantastic video, im just in chello so cross this bridge alot and know a little history

(my friend bumped the bridge at the worst bit a few years ago ;/ )

Great work