True Lovers' Walk - Good Fences 48

The River Tees runs through the town of Yarm in North East England. It's about a three mile walk from where I live.

River Tees at Yarm

The Teesside Princess uses this quay for boat trips up and down the river between Yarm and Stockton-on-Tees.

The red fence extends part of the way along the river bank.

The footpath continues alongside the wall on the left leading to True Lover's Walk and Yarm Bridge (in the background above).

Yarm Bridge (in front) - Yarm Viaduct (behind)

There is a fence in that photo but you need exceptional eyesight to see it.

Hard to miss this one on the raised path.

If we take a closer look the fence on the viaduct is easy to see.

Yarm Bridge and Viaduct

The original stone bridge was built c1400 by Bishop Skirlaw of Durham and for 400 years was the only bridge across the Tees connecting Yorkshire and Durham. Parts of the original can still be seen in the wider modern day bridge which carries road traffic over the Tees

Yarm, the Viaduct and the Bridge

The viaduct was built in 1849; it has 43 arches, contains 7 million bricks and carries the railway over the town and the Tees. Our fence must skirt its entire length.

True Lovers' Walk continues upstream under the viaduct with the flood defence gates to properties on the left.

I shall have to continue along the path on another day to see what other 

I can find.

In the meantime I'm off to check out other fence posts at Teresa's Good-Fences-48.

A Plague of Plaques - Sepia Saturday

My local town of  Yarm has a plethora of plaques, just right for the challenge Marilyn has set us for this week with this plaque of Pasteur treating a boy with a rabies.vaccine.

You may have seen a number of the photos in the post but not all at once.

Taking a tour of the town along West Street, travelling north, the first blue plaque you see is one on a building wall.

Blue Plaque - Hauxwell's

A modern photo but as you can surmise the building is much older, even though now it has been turned into flats.

Hauxwell's - in the morning sun.

Further down the street you come to an older site.

Hope House - 14th Century

And the house itself dwarfed by the arches.

Hope House - with viaduct above.

Across on the opposite is the church yard with this plaque on the wall.

Thomas Conyers Free Grammar School

When we moved to Yarm in the 1970s my elder son was to attend Yarm Grammar School in another part of the town which had replaced the one demolished. By the time my younger son reached the age to attend. The PC brigade had had the Yarm Grammar closed and replaced by a comprehensive school - named Conyers. Later Yarm Independent School took over the Old Grammar School and built new premises in the grounds of a former engineering firm's headquarters, which further back had once been a friarage. My daughter became one of the first six girls to attend Yarm School in the Sixth Form.

I've mentioned the viaduct already and you will have noticed it in both the Hauxwell and Hope House shots. The viaduct has a plaque of its own.

Leeds & Northern Railway Company's Viaduct

I won't ask you to count the bricks; it's easier to count the arches

Yarm Viaduct

At the left of the picture you can also see a bridge crossing the River Tees - it has a plaque of its own.

Yarm Bridge Plaque

And the bridge brickwork itself - 

Yarm Bridge (west side)

I could go on but it's time for a drink and where better to stop than at the: 

George & Dragon

It has some plaques, of course.

Stockton & Darlington Railway and Coaching House Plaques.

Unfortunately you cannot catch a train or a coach to take you to other venues on Sepia-Saturday-184.

Yarm Viaduct

Whenever I look at this aerial photo of the town of Yarm in North Yorkshire it seems the wrong way round.

Yarm

That's because if you live south of the town, as I do, you come into the High Street from the right as you look at the picture. 

At the left you can see Yarm Bridge just beyond the viaduct. The bridge was built in 1400 way before the young whippersnapper that now dominates the town.

Blue Plaque

I've never attempted to count the arches but even these details do not prepare you for the size of the thing.

Yarm Bridge with the Viaduct behind

Crossing the River Tees

The Viaduct was built to extend the Leeds and Thirsk Railway from Northallerton to Stockton and Hartlepool; the line eventually being extended to Newcastle as part of the Leeds Northern Railway.

Engineers and Contractors who built the Viaduct

Cars look like toys beside the structure as it bestrides the town.

The red roof at the left of this picture is Hope House which I have shown before.

Hope House

 

 

 

 

 

Viaduct (At top of Bentley Wynd)

I've never succeeded in getting a shot of the viaduct in use so I've had to borrow one/

Freight Train on Viaduct

Photographer - Ian Britton (ex www.freefoto.com)

(Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works)

The Bridge at Yarm

A-Z Challenge 2011 - B

The Bridge at Yarm

There has been a bridge over the River Tees at the North Yorkshire town of Yarm for 800 years. Before 1771 when a new bridge was built at Stockton, Yarm was the nearest place to the North Sea where the river could be crossed, the road from York to Durham passing through the town.

Three arches of Yarm Bridge from downstream - the structure behind is a railway viaduct

Records show there was a bridge at Yarm before 1300 and it is probable that the first timber bridge existed in 1200. The right to bridge tolls (pontage) was granted by the King to the person responsible for making repairs. We know one such pontage was granted by Edward I in 1305. 

The bridge too decrepit for use by the end of the century was replaced in stone by Walter Skirlaw, Bishop of Durham, in 1400. Skirlaw’s bridge, repaired many times and widened, still stands and carries road traffic to this day. The original stone bridge had five arches; three of these can still be seen on the upstream side. A drawbridge inserted in the arch on the northern side, in use during the Civil War, was removed in 1785 and the arch rebuilt in its present semi-circular form.

The increasing in traffic by the end of the 18^th century led to the decision to replace it with a new single-span iron bridge. However before the new bridge could be opened to the public it collapsed into the river. The old stone bridge was widened and provided with new parapets in 1810. With the addition of pavements each side and a tarmac surface it remains the same 200 years later.

 Yarm Bridge in front of railway viaduct