Suspension Bridge, River Kent, New Sedgwick Gunpowder Works, Low Park Woods, Sizergh Castle

Summary

Suspension Bridge

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Description

At New Sedgwick, although the main entrance to the works was always at the southern end of the site, initially employees coming from the Natland and Kendal areas to the north and north east may have entered the site at its northern end (see section 6.2.7 above). Apart from the ford across the Kent at the south end of the Old Sedgwick Gunpowder Works, the nearest bridge giving access from the east bank of the Kent to the southern end of New Sedgwick was situated lower down the river at Basingill (Force Bridge). This was an inconvenient location for northern workers and their use of the bridge would have necessitated a lengthy detour. All this changed when the Sedgwick Gunpowder Company Ltd. built a new footbridge across the river immediately beyond the southern entrance. The footbridge is not shown on the first edition OS 25” map (surveyed 1857) but is marked on the1859/1860 sketch maps; on one with a date of 1859 it is labelled ‘New Wood Bridge’ (CRO(K) WQ/A/H/15) (Fig 6). In the first few years a public footpath ran through the works, an unsatisfactory and dangerous state of affairs. The bridge may have been built both to discourage the public from walking through the works and also to ensure that all employees came in at a single point of entry for searching, clocking in etc. In January 1860, following a decision taken at the Kendal Quarter Sessions (CRO(K) WQ/O/15), the works part of the footpath was legally closed and re-routed along the east bank of the river via the footbridge. The latter was swept away in October 1874 during a flood (Westmorland Gazette, 7 August 1875). The bridge was rebuilt (work probably started soon after the flood) by Francis James Willacy as a suspension bridge which (according to his great grandson (David Willacy)) is believed to contain suspension rods reused from an earlier bridge in Scotland. The suspension bridge may have been better suited to the wide river crossing and thus less vulnerable to damage than the earlier wooden bridge. By 1982 the suspension bridge was in need of restoration and this was undertaken in 1988; on reopening in April 1989, the ribbon across the bridge was cut by Mrs Thomas Hornyold-Strickland of Sizergh Castle (Westmorland Gazette, 14 April 1989).

At the southern entrance of the works a high stone cross-wall extended between the main entrance gate and the riverside ensuring that workers had to pass through either the main gate or a smaller doorway in the wall to the south of the former. The path to the doorway was revetted on its eastern side. Searching would not necessarily involve a dedicated building - none are shown on maps - although a later extension to the gate house (see this section below) might have also been used for this purpose (English Heritage 2003).

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