Bridging the becks and rivers of Keighley & South Craven

DURING the first decades of the 20th century, the West Riding Highways and Bridges Department embarked on a series of major bridge improvements in the Keighley and South Craven area.

This project resulted in many of the old stone arched bridges being replaced by iron girder and concrete structures with stone parapets.

Among those replaced were the bridges at Eastburn, Glusburn, Cononley, Holme Bridge in Sutton-in-Craven and Stockbridge at Keighley. Most of these bridges had been built in the 18th century during the period that roads were first improved by the turnpike trusts.

The first recorded bridge crossing on the River Aire is at Kildwick and was built at the beginning of the 14th century by the monks of Bolton Priory. It is said to be the oldest remaining bridge in Yorkshire still used by general traffic. Apart from at Kildwick, pedestrians had to cross the river and its tributary becks on stepping stones – known as hipping (hopping) stones in Craven – or by footbridges. Vehicles and animals had to use fords, which were practicable along the Aire before it was narrowed and deepened during the 19th century.

There were fords crossing the River Aire at Cononley, Steeton and Marley, near Keighley, and across its tributary, Holme Beck, at Glusburn and Sutton. Most of these crossing points had a footbridge built of wood, or stone.

One of the earliest recorded stone footbridges crossed Holme Beck at Sutton. A date stone, now lost, recorded that it was built in 1690 when it appears to have replaced a wooden bridge. Evidence for a wooden bridge survives in the name Hebble End, a field that once adjoined the bridge and the beck. Hebble is an old dialect word for a plank bridge and is still found in such names as Hebblethwaite, near Sedbergh, Salterhebble in Halifax and Hebble End, a road that crosses the River Calder at Hebden Bridge.

The stone footbridge at Sutton had two arches and was too narrow for carts to pass over; they had to use the ford below. It didn’t have a stone parapet but had wooden rails at either side to prevent travellers from toppling into the beck. It was probably wide enough for pack horses to pass over and they may account for the damage that is recorded in the township books. Records for 1733 and 34 reveal that wood, rail and nails were bought for repairs. A similar bridge still survives at Beckfoot, near Bingley – it is 5ft 6in wide and has a wooden palisade fence at either side.

In 1757 the bridge was rebuilt at a cost of £22 16 shillings 6 pence, however it was poorly constructed and was swept away 10 years later in the great flood of 1767.

A new bridge was built in 1768 by William Smith & Son, who were Glusburn stonemasons. A list of specifications was set out in the contract. They required the foundations of middle “jowl or pier”, that supported the two arches, to be six feet broad and three feet deep below the surface of the water. The arches were to be rebuilt using the old stones, together with additional stones to be dressed onsite. The contract stipulated that the workmen were not to be paid until it was “finished in a workmanlike manner”. The bridge stood until 1914, when it was replaced by the present one.

With regard to the other bridges in the area, Glusburn was replaced in 1913, Cononley Bridge in 1928, Eastburn in 1937 and Stockbridge at Keighley was rebuilt in 1930. The Silsden Bridge, across the Aire, was not built until 1803 when it replaced a ford; it was widened in the 1930s.