page_title: Victoria Bridge, Manchester
section_title: Salford Old Bridge
hierarchical_section_title: Victoria Bridge, Manchester / History / Salford Old Bridge
caption_attribution_description: English: Salford Old Bridge, in Manchester. Manchester Cathedral visible in the background.
context_page_description: Victoria Bridge is a stone arch bridge in Greater Manchester, England. Completed in 1839 and named after Queen Victoria, it crosses the River Irwell, connecting Salford to Manchester.
  The bridge replaced an earlier medieval structure, Salford Old Bridge, which dated from the 14th century. The old bridge was built on the site of an ancient ford, from which Salford took its name. Contemporary accounts of its design are complimentary, but by the 19th century its narrow construction was viewed as an impediment to traffic, and it was demolished. Construction of the new bridge began in 1838 and it was completed about a year later, at a cost of about £20,800. It was opened to traffic on 20 June 1839, although Queen Victoria did not visit it until October 1851.
  Victoria Bridge is made from sandstone, and uses a single semi-elliptical arch of about 100 feet to cross the water below. It was declared a Grade II listed building in 1988.
context_section_description: The present structure replaced the 14th-century Salford Old Bridge, at the time the oldest in the region,  Salford Old Bridge's exact age is unknown.  The Lancashire and Cheshire Antiquarian Society estimated that it was built sometime around 1365 to 1368, as it appears in the will of Thomas del Bothe, a yeoman from Barton who bequeathed it £30.  Salford Old Bridge was built at the site of a ford, from which the town took its name; Salford is derived from the Old English word Sealhford, meaning a ford by the willow trees or sallows, which at the time grew alongside the Irwell's banks.
  A narrow stone bridge with three gothic arches, it housed a chapel built by del Bothe on the middle pier.  This was rebuilt in 1505 and was later used as a jail.  The bridge was the site of a notable incident during the English Civil War, when Royalist Salford used it to mount a short-lived siege of Parliamentarian Manchester.
  The 16th-century antiquary John Leland called the old bridge "the best of III arches", and referred to del Bothe's building as "a praty litle chapel".  A list of bridges published in 1781 lists it as "a firm commodious bridge", widened along the south side in about 1730, and with the jail's removal, on the north side in 1779.  By the 19th century, however, the bridge's narrow design was viewed as an impediment.  Its fate was decided at the Quarter Sessions for the Hundred of Salford in October 1836.  There it was agreed that it should be replaced, and so in September the following year it was closed (a temporary wooden crossing was provided for pedestrians) and over the next six months, demolished.  Bradshaw's Manchester Journal describes its construction as narrow, steeply-sloped and rudimentary, quoting an excerpt from the 27 March 1839 edition of the Manchester Guardian:
  On removing the key-stones of the arch on the Salford side, the whole of the masonry from the keystone to the centre pier fell over at once into the river, precipitating three or four of the workmen into the water; but fortunately none of them received any more serious injury than a considerable fright and a thorough ducking.  On examining the centre pier, it was found to be quite untouched and unshaken, each of the three arches having merely pressed upon or rested against the outer surfaces of the piers and abutments.
caption: Salford Old Bridge, looking northeast
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