History:

• Early 13th century is the earliest recorded date of a bridge at Wansford, known then as Walmesford.
• It was the main north-south link for the country for people travelling in and out of London.
• In 1234 King Henry III granted Oak from a nearby forest for repair work to the bridge.
• In 1330 the village of Wansford was given statutory obligation to maintain the bridge.
• In the 16th century it was recorded that traffic had reached a considerable volume over the bridge.
• In 1557 the current bridge was built by order of Queen Elizabeth I, it had 13 arches.
• In 1672, 3 arches were washed away in a storm leaving it with only 10 arches.
• In April 1706 the first 4-days-to-York stage coach arrived at Wansford.
• In 1795 an ice flood demolished the southern arches and they were replaced by 2 wider arches
• Since 1795 the architecture of the bridge has not been changed other then minor repairs for wear and tear.
• The bridge now has 12 arches and it is currently in the centre of Wansford village and copes with a steady flow of traffic from the surrounding areas.

Architecture:

It has 12 arches, spans about 91.44m (100yd) and is built of light-yellow ashlar masonry.

The 7 northern arches are in Northamptonshire and have a stone inscribed ‘PM 1577’ to mark their date of erection.

The 10 northernmost arches have a coped parapet with a stringcourse below.  On the west side the piers of each of these arches have V-shaped cutwaters but on the east side they have plain cutwaters. 

The earlier arches are semi-circular and have 2 plain square orders.  The northernmost bay has a crown of the arch and the next 5 arches have a narrower span than the ones rebuilt in the 17th century.  The latter arches are semi-circular and have 1 plain order only. The width between the parapets is only about 4.27m (14ft). 

On the outer face of the bridge there are 2 inscriptions showing Northamptonshire and Huntingdonshire respective sides of the bridge.  On a cutwater on the west side there is a boundary-stone between the 2 counties. 

The stone that was used to build the bridge came from a site about 4.83km (3 miles) away.  It was worked to ordered size and before every piece left it was marked by the individual mason’s mark, there are many masonry marks left on the stonework.

Social History :

There was a flourishing trade that carried through Wansford and much royal interest in the bridge as both King Henry III and Queen Elizabeth I travelled over the bridge on several occasions. When it was damaged by a storm in 1586 Queen Elizabeth I ordered that ‘it be repaired forth-with at the expense of the county’.

Indulgences were granted in 1221 to all travellers giving alms for repair of ‘Walmesford Bridge’. Also many grants of pontage (a tax which the King could claim if he wanted to) were issued for its repair in the 14th and 15th centuries.

When the flood happened in 1672 the repairs to the bridge took over 2 years to complete and an inscription on the bridge shows that the Huntingdonshire people ‘the poor side’ paid half the cost, and the Northamptonshire people ‘the rich side’ paid the other half.