Town loves talking about new ways to cross water
WHILE talk of a third river crossing – albeit a pedestrian bridge – is promising news for Burton, it brings back memories of the hype surrounding the long-awaited second crossing.
St Peter’s Bridge is now an integral part of the town’s infrastructure but it wasn’t officially open to the public until August 1985 and it took many – if not hundreds – of years of ideas and planning.
One of the first people to express an interest in a second river crossing was King Edward II in 1321.
The king desperately wanted a second river crossing when he had marched his army from Coventry, through Lichfield, to do battle with the Earl of Lancaster.
Away from the battle zone, one of the first men to take any real positive action concerning a second bridge across the river was the Marquis of Anglesey – and that was way back in 1858.
He saw the need for a shorter and quicker route from Burton to Stapenhill and so instructed his agent to draw up a scheme.
The plan was for the bridge to run on the line now taken by the Ferry Bridge and viaduct.
The town commissioners held a special meeting on November 8, 1858, but after a brief discussion, adjourned until November 12 when the clerk was ordered to acknowledge receipt of the notice for building a new bridge.
On December 17 a further special meeting was held and no objection to the plan was raised.
The Marquis of Stapenhill Bridge Act was given royal assent on July 5, 1865 but consequently no active steps were taken to carry out its full provisions. Nothing then transpired until the Ferry Bridge was first debated in 1879 and finally completed in 1889.
The prospect of a second river crossing for Burton was again mooted in 1902 when Burton Corporation considered a new bridge rather than widening the existing one.
From that date on, a number of alternative proposals were put forward as traffic levels increased from Stapenhill to the town centre.
The first major progress came in 1970 when a full reappraisal of the principle road programme proposals was made.
Two possible open spaces were deemed to satisfy the criteria for a new bridge.
Route one would take the new bridge to a junction with Stapenhill Road immediately north of St Peter’s churchyard.
Route two would mean the bridge would cross the eastern arm of the river approximately on the line of the existing Ferry Bridge.
This route would skirt the southern side of Stapenhill Gardens on a line with Jerrams Lane before joining Main Street and crossing the open land between Holly Street and St Peter’s Street.
This second option would join the west side of Stanton Road about halfway between Holly Street and Woods Lane.
At a town and public works committee meeting on November 5, 1970, it was decided that the second option was the preferred of the two.
Although the first route appeared the easies, it would perpetuate the crossing of the old Stapenhill village centre by two main roads – Stanton Road and Rosliston Road/main Street on their approach to the bridge.
The selection of route two however would have an adverse effect in regard to the gardens and Jerrams Lane.
While the first route would be detrimental to the attractive open space north of St Peter’s Church and would break up the present attractive curve of the river along the foot of the church.
During the 1970 reappraisal it was also agreed that the southwards shift in Burton from the original Fleet Street area to the Bond End position had other advantages in that it was less restrictive on future development.
Consideration was also given as to whether the new bridge should be restricted to vehicular traffic only but it was thought that, at least in the early years, this would be undesirable.
It was agreed the bridge would be built to full standards from the start with dual two-lane carriageways.
Construction costs were less important at the time than the environmental impact the new bridge would have on the area. It was more important that proposals were sought which had the minimum adverse effect on the environment.
By the early 1970s hundreds of thousands of words had been spoken, statistics poured on the Government appointed inspector and the sites inspected.
The official verdict was then announced – the route from Main Street to Bond End was the favourite and so was given the goahead.
The bridge was to be four lanes and officials at the town hall forecast that it would be in use by 1975.
Then there occurred one of those things which often happen in local Government – it was reorganised in 1974.
Burton lost its county borough status, absorbed neighbouring authorities, formed a new council, scrapped preconceived notions and started all over again.
More public inquiries had to be held and the favoured route was cast aside in favour of the one over which the bridge and road now runs.
It is only half as wide as the original project, carrying only two lanes of traffic.
With the bridge finally built and after the grand carnival for the public to celebrate in June 1985, there were more problems.
In July 1985 – just one month after the carnival to beat all carnivals – it was revealed that the road surface was defective.
Engineers working on the town’s much-awaited second river crossing had planned July 25 as the date the bridge would open to traffic.
But motorists would have to wait until Wednesday, August 21 because of the problems.