By Keren Thomson
This is the history of Nine Bridges, an important part of the overall landscape carrying the Maxey Cut, (it’s a work in progress and we hope to add to the story as we uncover more information). Peterborough Archives and Robert Beasley’s book A Topography of the Lower Welland have been invaluable in the research
The Nine Bridges Viaduct is a well-known local landmark, a place to walk, to picnic and in the summer to paddle in the shallow waters passing through the arches.
It lies on the B1443 between Glinton and Northborough and the old by-passed Lincoln Road on the eastern edge of what used to be known as Westings or Westins Meadow.
The area where the Nine Bridges stand has for millennia been affected by several braided stream systems of the Lower Welland and was a seasonally wet landscape. To the west there was a Neolithic cursus and enclosure and possible isolated settlements on the higher drier ground.
By Medieval times with the villages of Maxey, Etton and Northborough having been established, the high ground was given over to ridge and furrow cultivation but the lower zones occupied by infilled stream courses and possibly used as unenclosed pasture called Westings Meadow, remained seasonally wet and prone to flooding.
Attempts to drain the Fens, and to protect land from flooding, began as long ago as Roman times, and continued throughout the Middle Ages, but the ‘great draining‘ took place in the seventeenth century. King James I declared in 1620 “He would himself be responsible for the reclamation of the fen lands”. This was in part to improve and increase agricultural yields and grazing.
From the research of Nine Bridges it appears the area and the bridges were not originally a main route but this changed over the centuries. Robert Beasley maintains that the causeway evolved eventually becoming a well-used thoroughfare.
The 1580 Meadows map (NRO Map 1233) which includes Westings Meadow shows a faint line towards the eastern edge of the meadow and appears to indicate a direct route towards Northborough and possible evidence of some sort of bridge or ford? When the extent of Westings Meadow overlays a modern map, it looks like the faint line is in virtually the same place as the old Lincoln Road.
Please note you can click on the images to increase them in size
There was no recorded road on the route of the old Lincoln Road until after the route became a turnpike road from Lincoln Heath to Peterborough in 1756. The 1779 map clearly shows a thoroughfare along what eventually became known as Lincoln Road. A bridge of some sort first appears on John Featherstone’s map drawn in 1763 (not included).
In his book, Robert Beasley mentioned another possible alternative route (Page 8.2.) slightly to the west on higher ground as a more natural route to and from the windmill and between the villages.
Ogilby’s “Britannia Atlas” 88 years earlier than Featherstone’s map shows a very different route between Glinton and Northborough and then on to the Deepings and this was via Peakirk. This is because to reach The Deepings the River Welland has to be crossed. The 17th century Deeping Gate bridge features in E Jervoise’s book (The Ancient Bridges of Mid and Eastern England) which indicates it was a main crossing point of the river.
The bridges at Lolham, West Deeping and Market Deeping bridge “scarcely more than a century old” and Trinity Bridge at Crowland all feature in the book but there is no mention of the Nine Bridges Viaduct! This supports the view that there was no structure of significance at “Nine Bridges” and therefore not a major route. Also, the other bridges all spanned the River Welland and not just a seasonally flooded flood plain of the Meadows Stream.
It makes sense however that local residents often chose to walk a shorter, more direct route to the west from Glinton and Etton to Northborough and Market Deeping as shown in the Meadows map (along what eventually became Lincoln Road) using the higher ground, fording the Meadows Stream when possible (there is aerial evidence to support the existence of a ford). Currently there is no definitive evidence of any wooden bridge or any other structures crossing the stream although this is a possibility. This was also the most direct route to the windmill just to the south of Northborough. See Windmill Hill Field on the 1819 Enclosure Map.
The first definitive evidence of any bridges was following the construction of the new North Drain and South Drain sometime between the 1779 Meadows map and the 1819 Enclosure Map.
By 1819 the “road” had become the turnpike road from Peterborough Middle District to Lincoln Heath. The 1819 Enclosure Map showed the waterways of the North and South Drains had been constructed with a bridge over each one and the road leading from Etton named Bridge Road spanned some of the space between to enable a shorter route from Etton to Northborough. It’s difficult to establish precise dates of the stages of the development of Nine Bridges. However the 1886 Ordnance Survey map shows a road between North and South Drain and it is called Nine Bridges Viaduct.
The map above shows the straightened North and South Drains and a causeway between them with five “arches”? When was this map actually surveyed and drawn during the period 1805 to 1845?
In its time this road has been named Meadow Road, Viaduct Road and Bridge Road and is now part of the Green Wheel.
1886 OS Map: Surveyed and published 1886.
Note the 6 feet height difference between the road over the bridges and Bridge Road. The Lincoln Road turnpike through Northborough was not metalled until 1914. (A metalled road is a road with a level surface made of small or crushed stones.)
From A Topography of the Lower Welland:
The causeway, including the North and South Drain bridges consists of 18 arches but formed into 9 groups from north to south as follows:
- North Drain bridge 1 arch (original Enclosure bridge)
- Single arch bridge 1 arch
- Triple arch bridge 3 arches
- Triple arch bridge 3 arches
- Triple arch bridge 3 arches
- Two arch bridge 2 arches
- Triple arch bridge 3 arches
- Single arch bridge 1 arch
- South Drain Bridge 1 arch (original Enclosure bridge)
Banks protecting the Fens were continually broken and in July 1880 thousands of acres were submerged including lower Stamford, Etton, Maxey and Market Deeping. This happened again in the autumn of that year.
Extract from the Topography of the Lower Welland: Robert Beasley:
Severe floods affected the Nine Bridges area in August 1912, after which (in 1915) all the arches were concreted and 2 of the main arches repaired. Another flood in 1923 caused the eastern parapet of the southern flank of the bridge to collapse. The bridge repairs were made in Staffordshire brick.
The causeway was closed to traffic until the repairs were completed, which was diverted down Bridge Road and up and over the North Drain Bridge. Repairs were undertaken by R. S. Jellings in February 1924 at a cost of £2000. The repair work also included levelling out the switchback over the bridges and the road was tarmacked at the same time, kerbs installed and a path located on the eastern side. The opportunity was also taken to protect the causeway structure by removing the telegraph poles and placing them on land alongside. In June 1925 a tender for £300-10s by Messrs Hodgson and Son was accepted for the erection of painted iron palisade fencing. In later years this was removed and replaced by wooden fencing.
The Soke of Peterborough County Council received a letter of complaint from Peakirk resident Mr. H J Strange in 1924 mentioning the “extraordinarily high” flooding affecting the area in 1880 and 1912 and expressed his concerns of the raising of the waterway beds and repairs to the arches restricting the flow of water from a width of 250 yards to only 62 yards.
After the disastrous 1947 floods, as part of a wider plan for flood relief, work began to canalise North Drain turning it into the Maxey Cut. New banks were constructed 1954-55. The work consisted of widening and regrading the old Maxey North Drain as far as the Lolham Bridges. The Nine Bridges Viaduct needed underpinning and protecting to allow the new cut to carry its extra capacity and South Drain Outlet had a tidal sluice installed.
Of the original 18 arches through which flood water could pass, only 13 remain between the new 1950s banks. The five others exist at and near South Drain.
Acknowledgements:
- A Topography of the Lower Welland by Robert Beasley
- The Staff at Peterborough Archives, Peterborough Central Library, Broadway, Peterborough, PE1 1RX
- Charles French and Francis Pryor EAA109,2005 Archaeology and Environment of the Etton Landscape
- Partida, Tracey (2014) Drawing the Lines: A GIS study of enclosure and landscape in Northamptonshire. Doctoral thesis, University of Huddersfield. Page 133: Fig3.11 Westings Meadow in c.1580 (NRO Map 1233) and Fig: 3.12
- E The Ancient Bridges of Mid and Eastern England . Published 1932
- The 1819 Enclosure Map is included with the kind permission of Northamptonshire Archives Service: ML860