Old Tram Bridge Walk

Walk leader - Rodney Swarbrick

16 walkers met at The Old Penwortham Bridge on Broadgate. The bridge was built in 1759 and was used by pedestrians, horses and carts until a new bridge was built half a mile down river in 1912, so closing the old bridge to traffic. The Old Penwortham Bridge had originally been built to replace a ferry crossing, starting in 1388 and was provided free of charge thanks to a donation by the Vicar of Mitton

Enough of my ramblings, we set off up river and turned left through a wooded area between houses, passing The Continental Pub and under a railway bridge and into Miller Park. We turned left taking the top path past some beautiful flower beds and overlooking an ornate water fountain on the lower grassed area

We eventually came to a set of steps that we went down bringing us to Tram Bridge. This was the main purpose of choosing this route as the bridge had recently been reopened after it had been replaced after being closed for safety reason 7 years previous. This had caused a lot of inconvenience as the river crossing was used by many walkers and cyclists connecting South Ribble to Preston. The first Tram Bridge had been built in 1804 with major works had been undertaken in 1890, 1936 and 1966, gradually changing the wooden construction to concrete and now steel. As the name suggests, the bridge was originally used by trams taking passengers and goods from Walton Summit to Preston town, (now a city)

Having crossed the bridge, we continued down Tram Road for about 1 mile until just before some bollards, we turned left down some steps onto a footpath which came out at a water treatment plant where we continued to the River Ribble. With the river on our right, we walked along the bank until we reached and went under Tram Bridge again. After a short break, we continued along the river bank and back to The Old Penwortham Bridge which we crossed and back to our starting point where we discovered we had walked four and a quarter miles, enjoying each other’s company and having had a history lesson of the Ribble bridges

Report by John Waites

Next walk   -  Sunday 19th July

Start time - 1.45 pm

 pm

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