Haddington, Victoria Terrace, Victoria Bridge
Road Bridge (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Haddington, Victoria Terrace, Victoria Bridge
Classification Road Bridge (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Market Street; River Tyne
Canmore ID 87389
Site Number NT57SW 108
NGR NT 51802 73967
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/87389
- Council East Lothian
- Parish Haddington
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District East Lothian
- Former County East Lothian
NT57SW 108 51802 73967
Victoria Bridge [NAT]
OS 1:2500 map, 1973.
(Location cited as NT 518 739). Victoria Bridge, built 1900 by engineers Belfrace and Carfrae. A two-span bridge with each span consisting of eight segmental-arched cast-iron ribs supported on rusticated stone abutments and a central pier. There is a cast-iron balustrade, and the spandrels of the outer ribs have low-relief serpentine decoration.
J R Hume 1976.
TB Industrial photographic survey to follow.
(Undated) information in NMRS.
This bridge carries Victoria Trerace (the Eastward continuation of Market Street) across the River Tyne on the E side of Haddington (NT57SW 65). The weir NT57SW 80.02 spans the river diagonally immediately beneath this bridge.
Information from RCAHMS (RJCM), 7 March 2006.
Construction (1898 - 1900)
Project (2007)
This project was undertaken to input site information listed in 'Civil engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' by R Paxton and J Shipway, 2007.
Publication Account (2007)
Victoria Bridge, Haddington over the Tyne, just downstream of the narrow Nungate Bridge and upstream of the pre-1856 timber bridge to the corn mill, had been considered by the Town Council from 1849. Various plans and estimates were prepared including, in the 1880s, a scheme to use girders salvaged from the Tay Railway Bridge. Eventually a design was commissioned from civil engineers Belfrage & Carfrae, Edinburgh, and the present elegant twin steel arch bridge was built from 1898 to 1900. The resident engineer was William Jackson. Its 3 ft deep arched beams with ornamental facades have spans of 60 ft and a rise of only 6 ft. The steelwork and erection contractor was Somervail & Co. of Dalmuir and the bridge cost about£9000. It was named after Queen Victoria whose diamond jubilee had taken place in 1897. The bridge, tastefully refurbished by Lothian Regional Council in 1975 at a cost of about £20 000, is an excellent early example of a provincial steel arch bridge in Scotland, on a smaller scale but more slender than North Bridge, Edinburgh.
R Paxton and S Shipway 2007
Reproduced from 'Civil Engineering heritage: Scotland - Lowlands and Borders' with kind permission of Thomas Telford Publishers.
