Cawood Bridge - Izeria

Cawood Bridge is a swing bridge which spans the Yorkshire River Ouse in North Yorkshire, England. Construction was authorised in 1870, with the formation of the Cawood Bridge Company. It was opened on 31 July 1872 to replace the ferry, and is located about halfway between Naburn and Selby. It is the only bridge from the village of Cawood that crosses the river. It is Grade II listed.

1. History

The local population at Cawood considered the ferry crossing to be slow and, sometimes even dangerous. The Cawood Bridge Act 1870 (33 & 34 Vict. c. lxv), authorised a bridge to replace the ferry crossing. The bridge was opened in July 1872 at a cost of £12,000. It has five spans, two of which are the swing section and extends to 295 feet (90 m), even though the width of the river at the bridge's location is 50 yards (46 m).

1. Operations

The bridge, whose maintenance is the responsibility of North Yorkshire County Council, had a weight limit of 7.5 tonnes (8.3 tons) until 2017, when extra strengthening work was undertaken raising the weight limit to 10 tonnes (11 tons). CCTV cameras are installed to monitor traffic not adhering to the weight limit or red lights, and to allow officials to see traffic in both directions. It is the policy of the county council to prosecute any overweight vehicle, or vehicle jumping the red lights, caught on CCTV. Previous fines have been as much as £900. Crossing vehicles used to be charged a toll, but this system was scrapped in 1882, when the North Riding County Council bought the bridge. The bridge has experienced numerous problems, due partly to its age, but mainly due to the increasing numbers of heavy goods vehicles and heavily laden farm vehicles using the bridge and causing damage, especially when they have loads in excess of the maximum gross weight (MGW). Issues have included the locking pin falling out of place, cracks forming in the supporting structure, and jamming of the swing mechanism, which has caused heavy traffic delays and tailbacks.

1. 2003 closure

In October 2003, the bridge was closed for five days for urgent repair work, after a vehicle collided with a safety barrier. Later inspection discovered that the York end of the bridge was about to fail due to three large cracks in one of the supporting steel plates, which ran the full length of the bridge. River traffic was halted, and new plates were fitted within hours, as a temporary measure. Permanent repairs involved a steel plate, twice the thickness of the original, being fitted along the entire deck.

1. 2015 floods

In late December 2015, heavy rainfall led to flooding across large parts of northern England and Wales. The Ouse at Cawood flowed over the deck of the bridge.

1. See also

Listed buildings in Cawood Listed buildings in Kelfield, North Yorkshire

1. References

Nearby Places View Menu

Bishop Dike

Bishop Dike is an artificial watercourse in North Yorkshire, England. The dike, which runs from near Barkston Ash to Cawood, was built in the 15th century to carry stone from Huddleston Quarry to York upstream via the River Ouse to enable building works to be undertaken on York Minster. The dike is now used as a drainage channel. Some believe that the watercourse existed in a smaller form as a natural drainage channel, and that it was later canalised.

Landmark

Cawood

Cawood (other names: Carwood) is a village and civil parish in North Yorkshire, England that is notable as the location of the Cawood sword. Historically part of the West Riding of Yorkshire, Cawood belonged to the Liberty of Cawood, Wistow and Otley. From 1974 to 2023 it was within the district of Selby. Since 1 April 2023 it has been administered by North Yorkshire Council. For elections to the UK Parliament the village is in the Selby constituency, created for the 2024 general election.

Landmark Neighbourhood

Yew Tree House

Yew Tree House is a historic building in Cawood, a village in North Yorkshire, in England. The house was originally built in the mid to late 17th century. Stables were added in the 18th century, and in the 19th century a two-storey block was added, linking the house to the stables. There were further additions in the 20th century, and the property was divided into two houses. The entire building was Grade II* listed in 1966. The house is built of brick with stone dressings, floor bands, and a pantile roof with Dutch gables. It has two storeys and an attic, a front of three bays, and at the rear is a stair tower, and two two-storey outshuts, one linking with the two-storey three-bay former stable block. On the front is a two-storey porch with a moulded pediment, containing a segmental-arched entrance. The windows on the front are sashes, some horizontally-sliding. In the left gable end is a blocked mullioned window. Inside, there are moulded beams in some ground floor rooms, and some also have early sliding shutters.

Historic Site Landmark

Cawood Castle

Cawood Castle is a grade I listed building in Cawood, a village in North Yorkshire, England. The surviving fifteenth-century structures formed part of a fortified medieval palace belonging to the Archbishops of York, which was dismantled in the aftermath of the English Civil War.

Castle Landmark