page_title: Ferry Bridge, Burton
section_title: Bridge builders
hierarchical_section_title: Ferry Bridge, Burton / Bridge builders
caption_attribution_description: English: Ferry bridge, after restoration
context_page_description: Ferry Bridge is a Victorian pedestrian bridge over the River Trent in Staffordshire, England. The bridge and its extension, the Stapenhill Viaduct, link Burton upon Trent town centre to the suburb of Stapenhill half a mile away on the other side of the river.
  The bridge is a "semi-suspension" bridge, of which this is the first and only one of its kind in Europe to be built to this design. It was designed and constructed by a local firm, Thornewill and Warham. It is a three-span footbridge totalling 240 ft in length. The chains were made of flat bar iron, and are continuous from one end of the bridge to the other. They are riveted to the ends of the main girders, not anchored at a distance as they would normally be on a traditional suspension design. The bridge is made of wrought iron and cast iron, and is Grade II listed.
  The bridge was built to replace a small ferry service that had operated at the same site since the 13th century. The Ferry Bridge was gifted to the town by brewing magnate Michael Arthur Bass, later Lord Burton. It was officially opened on Wednesday 3 April 1889, and the ceremony was attended by between 8,000 and 10,000 people.
context_section_description: Thornewill and Warham Ltd, an engineering company in Burton, was selected to design and build the bridge. The business was founded by iron merchant Thomas Thornewill (born 1691) and his son Francis in 1740; located in Burton's New Street, it made spades and other edged tools. It remained largely focused on hardware manufacture until the 1840s. In 1849, Robert Thornewill (grandson of Thomas) entered into a partnership with John Robson Warham, an engineer from South Shields, and the firm became Thornewill and Warham. By 1862 they were making colliery winding engines, steam engines and locomotives, and within a decade were supplying steam engines to Scotland, London and South Wales.
  Apart from the manufacture of steam engines, the company was also notable for its construction engineering; they provided and installed much of the ironwork in the Burton breweries between 1850 and 1890. The construction in 1889 of the Ferry Bridge and the connecting viaduct to Bond End, at a total cost of just over £10,000, was one of the firm's major achievements in that field.
caption: Ferry bridge, after restoration in 2016
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