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Burton’s iconic Ferry Bridge is a pedestrian bridge over the River Trent in the town of Burton upon Trent, Staffordshire. The bridge is a Victorian suspension bridge, made of cast iron, and is Grade II listed. The Ferry Bridge and its extension, Stapenhill Viaduct, link Burton town centre to the suburb of Stapenhill half a mile away on the other side of the river. The bridge opened in 1889 to replace a small ferry boat that had operated at the same site since the 13th century. Hundreds of people use the bridge every day. The Ferry Bridge was gifted to the town by brewing magnate Michael Arthur Bass, Lord Burton, and reminds us of the enormous wealth and generosity of the brewery owners in Victorian times. Burton remains Britain’s main brewing centre.

1.	The demands for a bridge 2.	The opening 3.	Stapenhill Viaduct 4.	The ‘rape’ of the Ferry Bridge 5.	Cycling 6.	Renovation 7.	Construction of the Ferry Bridge

The demands for a bridge In the 19th century the brewing industry in Burton and hence the population of the town expanded greatly. As a result, passengers often had to wait a considerable time for the ferry. Two boats were needed at peak times. The clamour for a second bridge over the Trent grew. In 1865, the Marquis of Anglesey, who owned the rights for the ferry, obtained an Act of Parliament authorising him to build and maintain a bridge over the River Trent. The bridge was intended to carry traffic and to be as good as or better than the old Burton Bridge, at that time the only bridge across the river in Burton. Plans were drawn but never implemented. In 1885 the Marquis sought parliamentary approval to build a smaller footbridge over the River Trent near the site of the Stapenhill ferry and to sell the ferry rights to Burton Corporation. After long negotiations between the council and the Marquis, Burton brewery owner Michael Arthur Bass offered to build a footbridge at his own expense, as long as the council bought the ferry rights from the Marquis. The Council agreed to pay the Marquis and the then huge sum of £12,950 for the rights. Thornewill and Warham Ltd, an engineering company in Burton, was selected to build the bridge. Work started in 1888.

The opening The official opening ceremony for the bridge was held on Wednesday 3 April 1889. A crowd of between eight and ten thousand congregated on the Burton side of the river alone.

Stapenhill Viaduct Stapenhill Viaduct – the raised path over the meadows which connects Burton town centre to the Ferry Bridge – was not included in this work. At the banquet at St Paul’s Institute following the official opening, Michael Arthur Bass announced that he was to erect a raised causeway across the meadows to join the Ferry Bridge to Burton. The erection of an iron viaduct was begun and this was presented to the town in 1890. The total cost of the bridge and causeway was around £7,000 to £10,000. The viaduct and bridge were made free of toll on 13th April 1898.

The ‘rape’ of the Ferry Bridge By 1969, after eighty years serving the people of Burton and Stapenhill the elements had taken their toll. The Burton Mail reported that the bridge was in a serious condition. There was a suggestion that the bridge should be dismantled altogether, and a new one built at a cost of £60,000. This never went ahead. Instead specialists were called in to examine the whole structure. They concluded that the ornamental features and ironwork were too heavy and should be removed immediately. The council agreed to renovate the bridge. The bridge was enshrouded in scaffolding for nearly a year. When this was removed many local people were disappointed as the bridge had lost its embellishments. The previous colour scheme of gardenia and plum had been replaced by black and white paint, nothing like its original state. Two of the original cast iron lions which were embellishments on the bridge are currently at the National Brewery Centre, Burton. On 22 June 1979 the Ferry Bridge was listed Grade: II English heritage building ID: 273038. The listing reads as follows: Dated 1889. Footbridge over the River Trent. An iron suspension bridge of single span. The deck has open lattice sides, with rod suspension from laminated steel bands carried over elaborately moulded supporting towers which also carry moulded cross members each surmounted at centre by a shaped entablature inscribed with above date. The towers rest on circular cast iron piers with voluted capitals and each end of the bridge is supported on a rusticated stone abutment.

Cycling Cycling is prohibited on the Ferry Bridge. It is permitted on Stapenhill Viaduct. The walkway is divided into two, one side for walking and one for cycling. The bridge and viaduct are now part of National Cycle Route 63 but cyclists are told to dismount before crossing the Ferry Bridge.

Renovation By 2014 when the bridge celebrated its 125th anniversary, the bridge was once again in a poor condition. A campaign to restore the bridge to its former glory was started by a social media group called Friends of the Ferry Bridge. The social media group soon had hundreds of members. They persuaded the owners of the bridge (Staffordshire County Council) to agree to restore the bridge at a cost of £1 million pounds. Work started on 7 September 2015 and is due to be completed in summer 2016. In the meantime the bridge is closed. There is a diversion for walkers and cyclists.

Construction of the Ferry Bridge The construction of the bridge is on a suspension principle. Its distinctive feature being the chains which are made of flat bar iron, riveted to the ends of the main girders. These chains are continuous from one end to the other and are not anchored at the ends as they would normally be on a traditional suspension design. This form of construction had not been previously used in bridge construction and the Ferry Bridge was the first bridge in Europe to be built to this specification. The bridge spans the river in three sections, supported by four cast iron piers each five feet (152.4cm) in diameter. The piers were placed in pairs fifteen feet (4.57 metres) apart from centre to centre and were sunk to a depth of between twelve and fifteen feet (3.66 - 4.57 metres) below the bed of the river where there was a solid foundation of marl and sandstone. The pier cylinders were filled with solid concrete and on top of this there was three feet (91.44 cm) of non-porous engineering blue bricks cemented together. Finally, to complete the foundation, there was an ashlar stone bed onto which they were erected. The centre span of the bridge is 115 feet (35.05 metres) long and the two symmetric end sections each measure 57 feet (17.37 metres). The bridge footway is 10 feet (3.05 metres) wide and stands eleven feet (3.35 metres) above the average water level at the centre and nine feet (2.74 metres) above at each end. The towers, each of which stand 23 feet 6 inches (7.16 metres) high, when first built were cased externally with ornamental cast-iron work and the bases were panelled and decorated with the arms and supporters of Lord Burton, together with his motto – ‘Basis Virtutum Constantia’ (The basis of virtue is constancy). The towers were surmounted with lions rampant each of which carried a wrought iron staff with gilded copper vanes and Lord Burton’s monogram. The towers were contracted of wrought-iron lattice work two feet three and a half inches (70cm) at the bottom to one foot four and a half inches (41.9cm) at the top and twenty feet three inches (6.17 metres) high. They were braced together at the top by a lattice girder eleven and a quarter inches (28.58cm) deep. The towers were cased externally with ornamental cast iron work and the bases were panelled and decorated with the arms and supporters of Lord Burton. The girders are continuous from one end of the bridge to the other. The chains are made of flat bars 3 inches (7.62cm) thick, riveted in the middle of the centre span and at the ends of the bridge to the main girders. The piers and towers are placed outside the main girders, which increases the resistance of the bridge to wind pressure, the distance between the chains being wider at the tower than at the middle and ends of the girders The footway was originally red deal (Pinus sylvestris/European Redwood), 3 inches (7.62cm) higher in the middle than at the sides to ensure water run off. The lattice girders which tie the towers together are cased with more ornamental iron work bearing the date of the erection of the bridge, 1889 and underneath the ironwork appears the inscription ‘The gift of Michael Arthur First Baron Burton’. The bridge was tested by loading the middle section of the bridge with several tons of old rails and its rigidity was further tested by 20 men from the Staffordshire regiment marching in synchronised double time across the bridge. This latter test was considered, in 1889, to be the most severe test that a suspension bridge could be exposed to. The bridge was lit by six lamps in total, two Victorian lamps hanging from each of the cross braces between the towers and the heavy cast iron lamp pillars in character and four more lamps affixed to the towers at the ends of the bridge. The total weight of the iron work of the bridge is over 200 tons (203 tonnes). The stone substructure at the ends of the bridge span on which the bridges structure rests was built by Messrs Lowe and Sons, and the carving of the patterns being executed by Mr Hilton of Victoria Street Burton. The total cost of the structure including buying the permission of the Marquis of Anglesey to cross the river, was in the region of £20,000. Once built the bridge it was a testament to the quality of the local workforce and the expertise of the contractors concerned.