Bridges of Blackburn
First one to be built dates back to 1633
The Courier has teamed up with our friends at the Almond Valley Heritage Trust to bring our readers photographs and stories from West Lothian’s past.
This week - Two Bridges in Blackburn. According to one account, the first bridge across the River Almond at Blackburn was built in 1633; a twin arch stone structure carrying a narrow road.
William Roy’s Great Map of Scotland, surveyed in the 1750s, clearly shows a bridge across the Almond at a location that seems to correspond to that of Blackburn “old bridge”, which now carries Riddochhill Road.
Roy’s map was commissioned in the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising and provides a unique picture of the area before the age of agricultural improvements.
Many familiar routes and landmarks are absent from the map, and farmland is still laid out in unenclosed strips. The settlement of Blackburn is shown a mile east of its current location, not far from Seafield farm. Within a few years, the old village of Blackburn was cleared to make way for construction of Blackburn house, and the “Newtown of Blackburn” was established on its present site.
In 1764, a turnpike trust was formed to establish a toll road from Edinburgh to Glasgow via Shotts. Between Livingston and Whitburn, the new turnpike seems to have followed the route of the existing road and retained the old bridge across the Almond at Blackburn.
A small settlement, including a post office and an inn, grew up around the southern side of the old Blackburn bridge, from where traffic could also strike south towards West Calder and Lanark. With considerable traffic passing along the turnpike road, local landowners were keen to attract industry and commerce to the area.
The plot beside the bridge was developed in 1793 as site of the substantial Blackburn cotton mill, which remained a major employer in the area for the next 80 years.
In 1818, the turnpike trustees built a fine single arch bridge in place of the ford, establishing a direct route for their toll road, now West Main Street (A705).
This by-passed the old bridge, which was then effectively abandoned by turnpike trust. Following 1877, when a major fire led to the closure of the Blackburn cotton mill, the old bridge served little useful purpose, and by the 1890s it was in a dangerous condition. The future of the old bridge was the subject of Council debate for a number of years. Many of the parapet walls of the bridge had collapsed and fallen into the river and their were concerns over public safety. However the bridge and the Mill Road leading to it had never been included in the list of public highways and no one would admit responsibility for their upkeep.
It was eventually established that the lands were owned by the council, but there remained great resistance to spending public funds on a structure described as being “of no earthly use”.
Once a survey revealed that the bridge had good foundations and was structurally sound, the council grudgingly agreed to adopt the bridge and set about repairs and improvements.
These included raising the road on either side to provide a level approach.
Today the old bridge sees considerable traffic, providing an important link into the Riddochhill estate and a sneaky bypass for through traffic at times when there is congestion at Blackburn cross.
While the structure appears to have been substantially rebuilt in Victorian times, it lies on foundations that probably date back almost 400 years.
To the south of the bridge, a cluster of houses survive from the days of the turnpike road but go largely unnoticed behind smart modern facades.