Burnsall Bridge, Wharfedale, Yorkshire. This Grade II listed structure dates from the seventeenth century but needed major restoration work in the later Victorian period after a storm. Photograph sent in c.2023 by Rita Wood. As W.H. Cheetham explained in 1888:
On the 29th of January, five years ago, two arches of Burnsall Bridge were carried away, and this was caused by similar action in front of the principal buttress. There was a mighty flood. Even below Otley the whole valley was a lake, covering the fields in many places to the depth of six feet, and carrying down and spreading vast quantities of drift. The obstruction to the current at Burnsall Bridge caused an eddy, which worked out a wide hole in front of the buttress, then undermining it, nearly the whole fell forwards up the stream. I saw it lying there a few days after, one solid, unbroken mass; but two of the main arches had come down, and the material been swept away. Floods in Wharfedale occur periodically, and are by no means rare occurrences....
The bridge consists of "[t]hree large segmental arches with a smaller one to each side, with voussoirs." Notes in the listing text continue: "Triangular section, cutwaters rise into pedestrian retreats. To each end a pilaster. Band. Parapet. Half the bridge is in the parish of Hartlington." The route for the Dales Way, a popular long-distance walk nearly 80 miles long, passes over the fast-flowing River Wharfe at this point.
Not visible here is the listed bridge house with its marker indicating that the maintenance of both the bridge and the approach road is the responsibility of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
Photograph of the road into the village from the bridge, by the © Colin Smith, orignally posted on geograph and available on the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic Licence.
Along the road running north directly off the bridge are what was once a Methodist church (now a nursery annexed to Bursall primary school), and then a row of typical stone cottages.
The bridge gives access to the village of Burnsall, a well-known beauty spot in this area, representing what Cheetham describes as "the beau ideal of a charming country village.... A village green and a May-pole; a fine old church and a rectory; a clear swift stream, with a fine bridge over it; and close by a comfortable, old-fashioned inn" (198). The maypole may have gone, but Burnsall is still one of the most picturesque villages of the Dales, indeed, some would say of the north of England, even of the whole country.
Related Material
Bibliography
"Burnsall Bridge, Yorkshire." Historic England. Web. 20 April 2025.
Cheetham, W.M. "From the Millstone Grits to the Silurians." Journal of Earth Sciences. Leeds Geological Association. Transactions 1888. 194-204. Google Books. Free ebook.
Created 20 April 2025