Archaeology Notes

Event ID 837540

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/837540

NS56SE 458 c. 5916 6457

For (successor and present) Victoria Bridge, see NS56SE 24.

For re-use of timbers from this bridge, see NS66SW 901.

(NS 5917 6456) Victoria Bridge (NAT)

on site of Stockwell Bridge (NR)

OS 25" map, (1954)

The original timber bridge having gone into decay about 1340, Bishop Rae built a stone bridge at Stockwell Street in 1345. The bridge was originally 12' [3.7m] wide, and consisted of eight arches. In 1777 it was widened by 10' [3m] and the two northmost arches built up. In 1835, the bridge was 415' [126.6m] long and 34' [10.4m] wide (NSA 1845). It was replaced by Victoria Bridge, built about 1855 (ONB 1858).

NSA 1845; Name Book 1858.

Victoria Bridge (NS56SE 24) replaced the medieval bridge of Glasgow (otherwise Stockwell Bridge), which was partly rebult in 1671, nearly ruinous by 1758, strangthened and widened in 1774-8, and widened again in 1821 by the novel device of cast iron footway arches spanning between the protruding cutwaters.

E Williamson, A Riches and M Higgs 1990.

(Name cited as Glasgow Bridge). This stone bridge was erected (on the initiative of Bishop Rae) about 1350. It was sufficiently strong to remain in use for over 400 years, contributing greatly to the expansion of trade by opening up routes to the S. However, the restricted width of the bridge meant that the river continued to be crossed by fording.

J Riddell 2000.

This bridge formerly carried a public road across the River Clyde at the SE (upstream) end of the Upper Harbour, and thus formed the upper limit of navigation by ships. The river here forms the boundary between the parishes of Glasgow (to the N) and Govan (to the S).

The location assigned to this record is derived from that cited for the present bridge (NS56SE 24).

This bridge is not noted by J R Hume (1974).

Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 15 December 2005.