| Summary : Road bridge across the River Aire, built by the industrialist, Benjamin Gott, in the early to mid-19th century (pre-1838) to make it easier for his mill workers to travel between the Armley and Kirkstall Road districts of Leeds. The original bridge comprised an iron deck (of unknown design) on masonry abutments, but the superstructure was replaced by the present through-Pratt steel truss using girders manufactured by the Frodingham Iron & Steel Co Ltd, probably in the early 20th century. There were originally two small octagonal lodges at the left (Kirkstall Road) end of the bridge, but these have been demolished. Until the mid-20th century, a toll was levied for crossing the bridge, and the lodges may have functioned as tollhouses. |
More information : Gott’s Bridge, centred at SE 27250 34557, is a metal truss bridge on stone abutments that carries Redcote Lane across the River Aire. It connects the Burley and Kirkstall Road areas of Leeds east of the river with Upper Armley to the west. Upper Armley is the location of the Grade-II listed Armley House and associated Grade-II registered park (NHLE 1256386 and 1001216; now called The Mansion and Gotts Park respectively) that between 1803 and 1840 were the home of Benjamin Gott, a wealthy industrialist and owner of the nearby Armley Mills (NRHE 945915), the different parts of which are also variously listed at Grade II* and II. According to the Leodis website, Benjamin Gott built the bridge for his workforce to travel between Armley and Kirkstall Road; user comment left on the website suggests that the bridge existed by 1838 when one user’s great-great-grandfather lived in one of two associated lodges or tollhouses (see below) that formerly stood on the east bank (1a).
The extant bridge consists of a truss formed from steel girders manufactured by the Frodingham Iron & Steel Co Ltd, supported on gritstone abutments approached by short causeways with curving wing walls above. However, since the Frodingham Iron & Steel Company was only established (as the Frodingham Iron Company) in 1865, and incorporated as a public company in 1904 (1b), the present superstructure is clearly not the original.
There are major differences in the design of the two approaches to the bridge. At the western end, the causeway and wing walls splay out on either side in quarter-circle plan form and terminate in drum piers; there is also a square-section pilaster strip on either face of the abutment, plus another midway along both sides of the causeways, all of which rise up to coping level. All stonework below deck height consists of large, punch-dressed, squared blocks with marginal tooling. The level of the deck itself is then marked by a robust, undecorated masonry string course of fine ashlar, which breaks forward around the pilasters and drum piers, and above which all masonry is likewise ashlar, the walls composed of substantial square blocks, the coping and caps with oversailing and chamfered or curved edges. A small, round-headed flood arch runs under the causeway between the central pilaster and drum pier below string-course level. At the east end of the bridge, in contrast, the causeway and wing walls, while still splayed out, are much plainer in design, comprising dressed gritstone blocks with the top course rounded off as coping. Additionally, whilst there are pilaster strips at the start of and part-way along the wing walls, there are no terminal drum piers. These differences would appear to be partly attributable to the fact that this is the ‘low’ end of the bridge facing away from Armley House, but are also no doubt due to the former presence of the two lodges alluded to above. There is evidence that metal railings formerly sat on top of the wing walls. There is also considerable evidence of movement in the stonework of the western abutment, particularly on the downstream side.
The present bridge superstructure is a through-Pratt truss formed from steel girders manufactured, according to the maker’s name visible on various structural members, by the Frodingham Iron & Steel Co Ltd. As stated above, these girders cannot predate 1904, but the truss is clearly secondary anyway since the stonework of both abutments has been cut out to accommodate the truss’s sloping end posts. Since the Frodingham firm merged with the Appleby Iron Company in 1912 to form the Appleby-Frodingham Steel Company which itself became part of United Steel Companies in 1918 (1c), the truss presumably dates to between 1904 and 1912, and certainly pre-dates 1918. No evidence was seen to suggest the form of the bridge it replaced, although Ordnance Survey (OS) map evidence reveals that the original superstructure was likewise of metal, more particularly iron (see below). The road deck is tarmac over corrugated steel deck plates secured on cross-beams attached to the underside of the basal chord girders of the truss. Beneath this road deck, a suspended maintenance deck allows access to a gas pipe. Modern steel railings have been attached to both sides of the truss at deck level.
The bridge’s documented association with Benjamin Gott suggests that it was not built before the first decade of the 19th century, which is when Gott both purchased the Armley Mills and moved to Armley House. Indeed, no bridge is marked at this location on Jefferys’ map published in 1771 (1d). The bridge definitely existed by 1852, for it is described as Iron Br[idge] on the first edition OS 6-inch map (1e). Although neither lodge is shown at this date, this is presumably because of the map scale, for user comment on the Leodis website suggests these (and therefore by implication, the bridge too) existed by 1838, when the bridge appears to have been known as Burley Bridge (1a). The present name of Gott’s Bridge was current by the end of the 19th century, as shown by the OS map of 1893 (1f), although reportedly the bridge was (?then or later) also colloquially known as ‘Apenny Bridge on account of the toll levied (1a). The two Lodges, both octagonal in plan, are depicted and named (in Non-Antiquity Type) attached to the ends of the wing walls on the Kirkstall Road approach to the bridge on the 1893 map and all subsequent OS County Series 1:2500 mapping. The later, pre-Second World War editions, beginning with that of 1908 (1g), also label the bridge as ‘Toll’ in parentheses, confirming the oral evidence on the Leodis website, although the label disappears from National Grid series mapping suggesting that, post-War, the bridge has been toll-free. The two lodges may well have been designed originally as tollhouses. They were demolished sometime after 1964 (1h). (1) |