Skerton Bridge

The history of a bridge at Skerton is somewhat amusingly related in Cross Fleury's 1891 publication Time-Honoured Lancaster, which notes that, with the looming arrival of the Jacobites in the first Rising of 1715, the people attempted to forestall a rapid occupation of the town by damaging the only link to the northern bank of the Lune (the Old Loyne Bridge), knocking the battlements off the sides of the existing bridge to its northern end. The Governors of the town had, in fact, planned to blow up the bridge but, upon being informed that the river was shallow enough to ford easily at numerous points, opted not to cause needless damage and settled for strategic demolition instead. The…

The bridge is constructed in sandstone ashlar. It consists of five semi-elliptical arches with piers that are articulated by aedicules formed by attached Tuscan columns supporting pediments; it has a balustraded parapet. Each of the five original arches spans 64 ft, and the deck between the parapets is 33 ft wide. There are stormwater channels in the spandrels between the arches and at the abutments.