Over the bridge

So it’s the year 1300 and you have arrived at Appleby bridge for the town market. Passing over the narrow stone bridge and through the gateway, Briggate leads you from the bridge to the market place. The road is densely packed with low timber buildings with thatched roofs. A fume of peat and wood smoke hangs over everything and there is a strong smell of horse, cow and manure. Pigs and chickens root and scratch in piles of rubbish and the roadside gutters bear slops and effluent to the river. The roadway is packed with country and town folk, many in homespun woollen tunics. A few of the grander merchants push through on horseback and packhorses, bearing panniers laden with goods, jostle for position with horse and bullock-drawn wooden carts. 

In 2022 Bridge Street is still a busy thoroughfare linking the bridge with the town centre. I had to take this photo on Sunday, as through the week it is invariably full of vehicles of all kinds. There are always people wandering along the pavements. The road is still lined with buildings, mainly 18th century stone built structures added to during the 19th century. There are still a few very low doorways, but most of the original architectural features have been covered over with more modern shop fronts.

Number 9 has some impressive arched windows, apparently designed by a bridge builder who was working on the Eden Valley Railway line (see extra). The shops along here change hands regularly. Number 9 itself was once a Grocer’s, as can be seen by the sign in the doorway and I do remember it as such when we first moved here. Then it was a cafe and is now Ashiana, a rather good Asian restaurant (well it would be as the owner comes from  Bradford!). 

The street is narrow, is obviously very close to the river, and over the years has been flooded many times. In 2015 all the businesses along here were flooded and it was a long while before they opened again.