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Designed & Maintained By Carol Gingell
Breydon Road Bridge -
As road traffic around Great Yarmouth and Gorleston increased during the 1970s, the area began to suffer severe congestion problems with long queues of vehicles building up at peak periods. The construction of a new road bridge crossing Breydon Water began in 1984 as part of the Great Yarmouth A12 western bypass and the Gorleston inner relief road. The new bridge was supplied and erected by Cleveland Bridge Ltd. of County Durham and, although completed in 1985, it was not officially opened to road traffic until early in 1986 when the rest of the bypass had been finished. The bridge closely follows the line of the old rail viaduct and, during construction the original pilings were finally removed to make way for the new bridge. The lifting arm weighs around 500 tons and is raised by hydraulics, taking just 90 seconds to open fully. A standby generator was installed as a back up in case of power failure.
Breydon Road Bridge -
Haven Bridge -
The Haven Bridge connects the Southtown area of Gorleston to Great Yarmouth . The name “Haven” actually refers to the harbour, the history of which is rather interesting in itself. During the middle ages the River Yare exited into the North Sea at a more southerly point than it does today and the River Bure also exited into the North Sea between Great Yarmouth and Caister. Both rivers gave access to Great Yarmouth and had quays, but the mouth of the Bure (known as Grubb’s Haven) was the most important entrance into the port. Like Norwich, Great Yarmouth also began to construct a series of defences around the town during medieval times. Work began on building the town walls in 1276, with two large entrance gates to the North and South, and sixteen towers between, a task which was not completed until 1396. The mouths of both rivers became silted up during this period – with no dredgers to call upon, the only course of action that could be taken was to cut a new entrance by hand. The decision was made to maintain the navigation into the port along the Yare and to abandon Grubb’s Haven to the North. In 1346 the first new “Haven” was cut to the North Sea, further south than the present harbour entrance. This new entrance also silted up and, over the next two hundred years, a series of new havens were cut across the South Denes and then abandoned when they too formed sand bars across the entrance. Each attempt brought the haven closer to the town until finally, in 1560, the seventh and final cut gave us the harbour entrance we have today, completed by two stone piers at the entrance which were built under the direction of the Dutch engineer Joas Johnson. The South Pier, known as the Old Dutch Pier, was replaced by the current, concrete structure in 1962, having stood the test of time for 300 years.
The first bridge to cross the River Yare at Southtown was erected in 1427. There had been a horse, cattle and foot ferry crossing at this point since at least 1261 and in fact a foot ferry still continued to operate until the end of the 19th century. This was replaced in 1553 by a wooden drawbridge which was recorded as having been carried away by a high tide in 1570, a second drawbridge was built in the same year at a cost of £403 15s 9d. Just how busy the port of Great Yarmouth was can be noted from the fact that 700 vessels were recorded as being in the Haven on one day in 1597.
Presumably, the repairs were carried out to the bridge as it remained standing until 1786 when it was then replaced by bridge number four, another wooden drawbridge which cost just over £2,000 to build. In 1845 two tenders were received for replacing the bridge with a more solid structure, the first from Mr Peto quoted costs of over £32,000, the second received from Mr W.S. Simpson at just over £19,000. The Norfolk Mercury reported on the 19th July 1845 that Mr Simpson’s tender had been accepted by the ports commissioners but the plans had been postponed as he had not complied with their terms. In 1849 the “Yarmouth Bridge Bill” was passed and work finally began on the construction of the new bridge. It seems as though the old bridge was left in situ whilst the new one was being built as the Norwich Mercury of the 8th May 1852 reported that the coffer damn at the new bridge works had blown up, whilst the following day the old bridge had been on fire. The works were once again stopped in the September of 1852 due to “quicksands”. Five years after construction had commenced, the new Haven Bridge was opened to the public on October 21st 1854. The total costs were around £60,000 and 2,600 tons of stone and 300 tons of iron were used. The central, lifting span rested on two stone piers and each arm weighed approximately 45 tons.
The problems with silting up at the harbour mouth and in the Rivers Yare, Bure and Waveney continued during the 17th century and further trenches were cut through the sandbars which formed. In 1721 an act was passed which stated that half of the amount of harbour duties received by the port were to be spent on improving the Haven and it’s piers and jetties, a quarter spent on deepening and cleaning the three rivers and repairing the bridge and public quays at Yarmouth and that the remaining quarter was to be used in cleansing and deepening Breydon.
The current Haven Bridge was opened by HRH the Prince of Wales on the 21st October 1930 and thousands of people lined the quays and rooftops to witness the event. The double bascule lifting bridge measures approximately 230 feet in length, provides a navigation channel of 88 feet in width and was manufactured by Sir William Arrol & Co. Ltd whose portfolio also included the Forth Rail Bridge in 1890, Tower Bridge in 1894 and the Nile Bridge at Cairo in 1908. The 650 ton lifting arms are raised electrically, although can be operated manually in the event of a power failure. The bridge suffered severe congestion problems during the 1970s and 1980s until the opening of the Breydon Road Bridge in 1986. After 70 years of service, the Haven Bridge was restored for the millennium and new lighting was added at that time.
The increase in population, and the development of road vehicles during the early part of the 20th century, meant that yet another new bridge would be needed. The old bridge closed in 1928 and a temporary wooden structure was erected to allow access in and out of Great Yarmouth until the new one was built.
The previous Haven Bridge pictured c1890 by Thomas Ayers -
An illustration showing the fourth Haven Bridge -
Proposed Third River Crossing
There are proposals for a third river crossing on the Yare with the redevelopment of the outer harbour industrial area at Great Yarmouth to reduce the traffic congestion problems associated with the other road bridges in the town. The new crossing will connect the Southtown area of Gorleston with South Deans, four possible locations were looked at for either a bridge or tunnel crossing the Yare but it is likely that the cheaper, dual carriageway bridge scheme will be adopted. Estimated costs for the lifting bridge are between £112 to £122 million and would probably result in around 35 homes being demolished in Queen Annes Road and Southtown to make way for the structure. The alternative tunnel option has estimated costs of £376 million and would cross from Ballast Quay to the Harfreys roundabout. It is thought that funding is unlikely to be available for either option until 2016 at the earliest.
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The River Yare
Bridges Of The Norfolk Broads
