Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016157
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016157
At Coldstream, between 1763 and 1767, John Smeaton built a fine 7 arch bridge across the Tweed, much higher and with flatter arches than the earlier bridges. The 5 main, segmental arches are bounded either side by semi-circular flood arches, and whilst the arches themselves are of well-dressed stone, the spandrels (those areas above and between) are rubble-built The flood relief holes high in the spandrels have been filled in; above them a line of corbels protrude below the parapet The bridge was widened in 1962.
Coldstream derived its original importance from its ford-the first of any consequence above Berwick, it is sometimes said, though that at Ladykirk was also significant On the English side of the border, splendid castles at Wark and Norham respectively commanded access to each ford. Just east of Wark is the site of the battle of Car ham where Malcolm II's victory over the Anglian Northumbrians led to the adoption of the Tweed as the national frontier from 1018. A few kilometres south-east by contrast, the Scots were decimated in 1513 at Flodden Field (NT 890370). This was the route chosen, therefore, by so many armies, Scottish and English. Even today there is no further bridge upstream before John Rennie's magnificent
creation at Kelso, built 1800-3 (NT 728336).
Until an Act of Parliament in 1856 forbade clandestine weddings,Coldstream was an eastern equivalent of Gretna Green. Runaway marriages from England were contracted in the toll-house-the one-storey building, with extension, immediately north on the east side of the bridge.
Information from 'Exploring Scotland's Heritage: Lothian and Borders', (1985).
