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place:- Willowford Bridge
site name:- Hadrian's Wall
site name:- Irthing, River
locality:- Willowford
parish Upper Denton parish, once in Cumberland
parish Waterhead parish, once in Cumberland
county:- Cumbria
bridge
coordinates:- NY62126645
10Km square:- NY66

1Km square NY6266

Abutment on the east of the river.
photograph

roman bridge, Willowford -- Hadrian's Wall -- Irthing, River -- Willowford -- Upper Denton and Waterhead -- Cumbria / -- 16.2.2011
photograph

roman bridge, Willowford -- Hadrian's Wall -- Irthing, River -- Willowford -- Upper Denton and Waterhead -- Cumbria / -- 16.2.2011

old text:- Camden 1789 (Gough Additions)

Britannia, or A Chorographical Description of the Flourishing Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland, by William Camden, 1586, translated from the 1607 Latin edition by Richard Gough, published London, 1789.
Page 226, Mr Horsley:-
...
"At the Willoford on the east side of the river the military way seemed to be south of both walls, and at the head of the bank on the west side near Burdoswold there seemed to be a military way on the north of them both, which was pretty visible. If the appearance be not mistaken, this is the only instance of Severus's military way running out from between the two walls in their whole track. I saw no remains of a bridge, either at Poltross or Irthing. The bank of the river Irthing on the west side, to which the wall points, is very steep and high, but it seems to have become more so of late years from the falling away of the sandy bank. But the declivity on each side of the water must probably have been always considerable; because the military way here fetches a compass and goes sloping down the one side and up the other.
person:- archaeologist : Horsley, John
date:- 1789
period:- 18th century, late; 1780s

old text:- Bruce 1863 (6th edn 1909)

Wallet Book to the Roman Wall, by J Collingwood Bruce, published 1863; published 1863-1909.
pp.198-199
How the Wall crossed the river, and ascended the cliff which bounds the western bank, no remains are left to show. ... John Armstrong of the Crooks, Gilsland, told the author that, being employed in 1836 to build Willowford farm-house, he got stones from the Wall. At about sixty yards from the eastern bank of the river, as it now is, he came in contact with the 'landbreast' (abutment) of the bridge, which, he says, had evidently crossed the river. ...
date:- 1863
period:- 19th century, late; 1860s

Old Cumbria Gazetteer - JandMN: 2008

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