Stanley Burn Bridge

Stanleyburn Bridge carried the Gateshead to Hexham road (HER ref. 3628) over the Stanley Burn. The burn forms the county boundary here, so the bridge lies in both Tyne and Wear and Northumberland. A 19th century plan which is thought to be a tracing of a plan of 1766 indicates a bridge crossing the burn at this point and a meandering path from Prudhoe approaching it. The road was turnpiked in 1777 and the plan clearly pre-dates this occurrence. The suggestion is therefore that a bridge was already in situ prior to the turnpiking of the road and was utilised as the crossing point when the road was improved. A new crossing was built in the 1840s and the old bridge was thereafter used as a footpath crossing, in which role it has survived to the present day. LOCAL LIST