Harrold Bridge

Harrold Bridge

This is a substantial medieval multi-span bridge and causeway that carries the road over the River Great Ouse in a north-south alignment. It is constructed of coursed limestone rubble with some red-brick arch rings.

The structure comprises three distinct sections. At the northern end, the river bridge has 6 arches spanning the river. South of this is a short causeway on the south bank, followed by the long bridge with 9 arches crossing the flood plain. Beyond this, parallel to the Carlton Road, runs a narrow foot causeway of 20 arches. The arches are numbered from the south end, so the flood arches are numbered 1 to 9 and the river arches 10 to 15.

The river bridge features stone parapets with semi-circular coping in red brick and two passenger refuges on the west side. At the northern end are 5 small rounded buttress-like features on the outer side of the east parapet. The river arches are irregular in width and style, with the soffits revealing three phases of widening. Above arch 10, a small round arch nearest the south bank, a change in the stonework on the east side indicates where the original earthen ramp gave access to the bridge. The parapet, added in the late 1820s, created a passing bay. Arch 11 on the east side has a pointed arch of two layers of dressed, chamfered ironstone and an outer rounded arch with a red brick arch ring. The remaining arches have rounded limestone arches. Corbelled stonework appears above arch 12, and arch 14 has double arch rings of limestone blocks with gault brick parapet coping above. On the west side, the river bridge arches are round except for arch 11, which is raised to a slight point, all with red brick arch rings. Large triangular cutwaters stand between the arches.

The long bridge to the south shows a projecting thin course of masonry above the arches on the east side marking the original height, with a later parapet above which was subsequently heightened and capped with semicircular brick. The parapet becomes lower at the south end, terminating in a short eastwards return. The soffits of the flood arches reveal 3 to 4 phases of widening. On the east side, the arches are mostly round, though some are raised into a slight point, with stone arch rings. Arch 3 has a shallow segmental arch with a red brick arch ring. On the west side, arches 1 to 6 are segmental with brick arch rings, and rounded buttress-like features appear between them, representing later encasing of the original triangular cutwaters. Arches 7 to 9 are semicircular with keyed ironstone arch rings, and the parapet coping above these three arches is of stone.

The causeway to the south has triangular cutwaters on the west side set with flint nodules. The Tudor arches have rubble stone arch rings, except for three semicircular arches of chamfered brick which may be a late 19th-century repair. The causeway becomes narrower at the southern end with no cutwaters.