Tern Bridge

Tern Bridge is a road bridge built between 1771 and 1780, designed by William Hayward for the County of Shropshire and Noel Hill, 2nd Baron of Berwick. The road was widened in 1932.

The bridge is made of grey sandstone ashlar and features a single, wide, segmental arch with rusticated voussoirs. At the center of the arch, there is a triple keystone with fluted keys on either side of a central carved face. Above this, a continuous frieze and cornice support a balustrade parapet, which is interrupted by intermittent square blocking. Each end of the arch has an arched niche flanked by rusticated Tuscan half-columns, and the parapet above projects forward from the bridge line. The bridge is surrounded by curved retaining walls that include square-end piers and battered buttresses. A plaque in the center of the parapet states, "THIS BRIDGE/WAS ERECTED AT THE EXPENSE OF THE COUNTY/A.D. MDCCLXXX/ AND DECORATED AT THE EXPENSE OF/NOEL HILL ESQ/WILLIAM HAYWARD ARCHITECT." Smaller plates indicate that the bridge was "WIDENED 1932 BY/THE REINFORCED CONCRETE/CONSTRUCTION CO LTD/OLD TRAFFORD MANCHESTER."