Rotherham Bridge

Rotherham Bridge is a late 15th-century stone arch bridge over the River Don in Rotherham, South Yorkshire. It carries the older Chantry Bridge name and holds the Chapel of Our Lady of the Bridge built into its central pier. Only four medieval bridges in England still have their original chapels intact, and this is one of them. The bridge and chapel together form a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled monument. The structure rests on four segmental sandstone arches with pointed cutwaters to resist the river’s flow. The bridge began as a timber crossing replaced in about 1483 with sandstone funded largely by local bequests, including a major gift from Thomas Rotherham, Archbishop of York. The chapel was built upstream on the central pier and served travellers with daily masses paid for by chantries. After the Dissolution of the Chantries in the mid-16th century the chapel lost its religious use and became a lock-up known as the Bridge Gaol. Later it housed an almshouse, a tobacconist’s shop, a dwelling and a newsagent’s depot before being restored in the 1920s. Visitors find the bridge’s four main arches of yellow sandstone ashlar carrying a narrow roadway above the River Don. The Chapel of Our Lady stands on the central western pier in Perpendicular Gothic style, with embattled parapets, pinnacles and traceried windows. Inside, a rib-vaulted crypt is built into the pier itself. A modern Chantry Bridge downstream now carries most traffic, leaving the historic bridge quiet enough to appreciate its medieval craftsmanship and the chapel’s restored interior.