Skeldergate Bridge Opening - York, UK
N 53° 57.239 W 001° 04.901
30U E 625876 N 5980105
This plaque is on the south side of the bridge on the west side of the river and explains when the bridge opened for pedestrian and general traffic. The latter being the "grand opening".
Waymark Code: WMK2RH
Location: Yorkshire, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 02/04/2014
Views: 6
There is a plaque on the south west corner of the bridge that tells us:
This bridge
was first used by foot passengers on the 1st January 1881 and was formally
opened for general traffic on the 10th March 1881
by The Right Honourable John Stephenson Rowntree Lord Mayor
Richard Thompson, Esquire, Sheriff
The History of York website tells us:
Skeldergate Bridge was the third of the modern road bridges to cross the River Ouse at York (the first being Ouse Bridge as early as the ninth century and the second, Lendal Bridge in 1861-3). The need for a third bridge was identified in 1873 when the Corporation of York reported that more than 800 people a day were using the Skeldergate ferry crossing. The York (Skeldergate Bridge) Improvement Act was passed in 1875.
The foundation stone of the new bridge was laid in 1878 and the completed bridge officially opened to pedestrians on 1 January 1881 and to general traffic two months later. The original architect behind the construction was Thomas Page, who also designed Lendal Bridge in York and Westminster Bridge in London. When Thomas died at an early stage in the development, he was succeeded by his son, George Page.
Skeldergate Bridge, like Lendal, is an iron bridge with Gothic details. The parapet is decorated with ornate ironwork featuring trefoils, six-pointed stars and the white rose of York. The original design of the bridge was altered during planning to enable the north-easternmost span of the bridge to open, allowing tall ships to reach the busy quaysides further upstream. The bridge was last opened in 1975 and the winding mechanism has since been removed.
Skeldergate Bridge was originally built as a toll bridge. The toll-house, which also housed the winding machinery, still remains. The bridge was formally declared toll-free on 1 April 1914, an event which was greeted so enthusiastically by the citizens of York that a regatta was held to celebrate the occasion.
Wikipedia tells us about John Stephenson Rowntree:
John Stephenson Rowntree (2 May 1834 – 13 April 1907) was a Director of Rowntree's, the York confectionery company and a reformer of the Quaker movement in the United Kingdom.
He was the eldest son of Joseph Rowntree (1801 – 1859) and Sarah Stephenson (1807 – 1888), his wife. He was born on 2 May 1834.
He married Elizabeth Hotham (1835–1875) on 25 August 1858. They had nine children. Following her death, he married, on 10 April 1878, Helen Doncaster (1833–1920).
His book, Quakerism Past and Present (1859), written at the age of 24, analyses the state of nineteenth-century British Quakerism and was a cause of some essential reforms. He supported Quaker education in York and the training of women teachers and the higher education of women, in general. He was editor of The Friend from 1875 to 1878.
He was an ardent botanist, a keen archaeologist, and well versed in the history of York. He was elected Lord Mayor of York in 1880 and during his aldermanship devoted himself to putting the city's unsatisfactory finances on to a sound basis.
He died in London on 13 April 1907. After his death, some of his writings were collected and published by Phoebe Doncaster, together with a memoir, as John Stephenson Rowntree, his life and work