e2e.bike

Cycling adventures across Britain and beyond

Menu
  • End to Ends
    • Britain
    • Ireland
    • France
    • Belgium
    • Spain
    • Austria
    • Liechtenstein
    • Poland
    • Slovakia
    • Isle of Man
    • Faroes
    • Cuba
    • Sri Lanka
    • Taiwan
  • Coast to Coasts
  • Yorkshire Ridings
  • Others
  • Writings
Menu
← PreviousNext →

Horkstow Bridge: Little to Humber’s Large

Posted on 2 September 20092 April 2021 by Rob Ainsley


Not far from the Humber Bridge is another crossing that’s a little-known gem, and one that’s effectively only open to pedestrians and cyclists. (Cars can in theory use it, except there’s no road on the other side, only a dirt track.)

Horkstow Bridge (pics), just 20 minutes’ bike ride south into Lincolnshire from the Humber Bridge, is one of Britain’s oldest surviving suspension bridges, dating from 1836. It’s also John Rennie’s only suspension bridge, and presumably the world’s most elegant bridge built solely to transport bricks across a canal. Men of punier aesthetic ambitions than Rennie would have just thrown them over.


Much of Horkstow Bridge’s charm is because it’s on the end of a remote country lane in a back-of-the-sofa part of England, on the end of a cul-de-sac. Which is an odd place for a bridge. A kind of pocket-sized Clifton Suspension Bridge, it’s only 133 feet long, 14 feet wide and 36 feet above the river, so the Humber does rather dwarf it.

But, like the Humber, you can ride right across it, so what more reason do we need?

Previous
←   Humber Bridge: Still a world-beater for bikes
Next
Scarborough: Cinder Trail to Whitby →

You are here

e2e.bike > Other > Route research > Horkstow Bridge: Little to Humber’s Large

Recent Posts

  • Ripon: Up secret valleys, down Cathedral rabbit holes 23 January 2023
  • Castle Howard: Bridleway Revisited 20 January 2023
  • Goathland: Spouting off about time travel 6 January 2023

Random Posts

  • Quirky London 5: The oldest shopfront5 February 2010
    Where is it? 56 Artillery Lane, in higgledy-piggledy back streets off Spitalfields …
  • Britain 3: Camelford to Barnstaple7 June 1997
    At last, a day without rain, and with a euphoric tailwind. The …
  • Britain 8: Kendal to Haydon Bridge20 May 2013
    I like Kendal. Every time I pass through I see something interesting …

Search e2e.bike

Find me

        
Facebook • Twitter • Linked In • Email
© 2023 e2e.bike | Powered by Minimalist Blog WordPress Theme