Ragby Bridge

Ragby Bridge is an accommodation bridge, likely built in the early 18th century. It is constructed of rubble brought to course with roughly dressed grit-stone voussoirs and features a single-span arch that crosses the Ramsden Clough. The arch springs from a boulder plinth, and there is a stone setted foot-bed beneath the arch. The bridge has slightly swept abutments and originally had a low single-stone parapet, which was recorded as missing in 1966 and is believed to have been washed away in a flash flood in 1983.

Ragby Bridge carried an ancient packhorse route known as 'The Walsden Highway', which was part of the 'Ramsden Long Causeway'. This route connected Rochdale and Wardle to Walsden and Todmorden before the construction of the Steanor Bottom Turnpike Road through the Walsden valley in 1764. The bridge is a notable example of a small packhorse bridge situated in a typical rural moorland setting. It was the only bridged river crossing in Walsden until the Rochdale Canal was built in 1800, when New Bridge was constructed in the valley bottom.