- Hanging Bridge
__NOTOC__Location map
Greater Manchester
label =
lat = 53.484482
long = -2.243345
caption = Map showing the location of Hanging Bridge withinGreater Manchester .
float = right
background= white
width = 175Hanging Bridge is a
medieval bridge (gbmapping|SJ8385498696) spanning the Hanging Ditch, which connected the rivers Irk and Irwell inManchester ,England . [cite web |title=The Hanging Bridge |url=http://www.mcvc.info/?s=bridge |publisher=Manchester Cathedral Visitor Centre |accessdate=2008-10-07] The first reference to the bridge was in 1343, when it was called Hengand Brigge,Harvnb|Cooper|2003|p=51.] but the present bridge was built in 1421, replacing an earlier structure. Material robbed from Manchester's Roman fort may have been used in the construction of the bridge.Hylton (2003), p. 3.] It has been suggested that the name derives from theOld English "hen", meaning wild birds, and the Welsh "gan", meaning between two hills. At its Irwell end, the Hanging Ditch was convert|120|ft wide and convert|40|ft deep. A stream flowed through the ditch, from the Irk to the Irwell—possibly the lost River Dene, which gave its name toDeansgate .Harvnb|Cooper|2003|p=52.]The bridge has two arches and was built using sandstone from
Collyhurst . It is convert|108|ft long and convert|9|ft wide. Hanging Bridge formed part of Manchester’s medieval defences. During the medieval period, it was the main route from Manchester to the cathedral, which was then a parish church.In 1600 the Hanging Ditch was condemned as an unsanitary open sewer, and in the following years the ditch was culverted and the bridge buried and built over. A directory published in 1772 recorded that nine houses had been built along the line of the bridge, suggesting that it may have been covered over during the first phase of Manchester's town planning some time in the 1770s. The bridge was then forgotten, remembered only in the name of the area where it had stood, until its rediscovery and subsequent excavation as a result of demolition work carried out in the 1880s. The bridge was put on display, and in three months had about 32,000 paying visitors. It was once again covered up during the Victorian expansion of Manchester. More than 100 years later it was uncovered again, and following restoration work it went on display in 2002 as a main attraction of Manchester Cathedral's newly built visitor centre. [cite web |title=Bridge to Manchester's past revealed |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/england/1717912.stm |publisher=BBC|date=2001-12-18 |accessdate=2008-07-04]
Today the bridge is largely hidden by modern buildings, but it can be seen in the basement of Manchester Cathedral, where it forms one side of the refectory. [Harvnb|Cooper|2003|pp=53–54.] The bridge is listed as a
Scheduled Ancient Monument .cite web |title=Hanging Bridge |url=http://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=76682 |publisher=Pastscape.org.uk |accessdate=2008-01-07]ee also
*
History of Manchester
*Scheduled Monuments in Greater Manchester References
Notes
Bibliography
*citation |last=Cooper |first=Glynis |title=Hidden Manchester |publisher=Breedon Books Publishing |year=2003 |isbn=1859834019
*cite book |first=Stuart |last=Hylton |date=2003 |title=A History of Manchester |publisher=Phillimore and co. Ltd. |location=Chichester |isbn=1-86077-240-4
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