Please click the Play button to listen to a brief audio clip about the history of St Lawrence’s Bridge, and the Gatehouse that once stood.
A Transcript is also available further down the page.
Historical Images
Audio Transcript
It is believed that Appleby’s original bridge was built around 1110. History confirms that by 1382 there was a proper stone bridge, however there is nothing to prove what materials were used before that.
The historic ancient stone bridge was the only link between the centre of the old Appleby Borough and the railway side of town. Over the years, the ancient bridge had been damaged by many floods, and in the late 1880s it was rebuilt into the bridge that still stands today, known as St Lawrence’s Bridge. The first known evidence of flooding in Appleby is from 1733.
The old Appleby Gatehouse stood at the West End of the bridge. Plans from the 17th Century suggest that there were two rooms, one either side of the roadway. We can speculate that one was used as a porter’s lodge, with guards collecting tolls and regulating traffic coming in and out of the market. The other room might’ve been used as a Chapel, where those leaving prayed for a safe journey home. The gatehouse was demolished soon after 1773, but you can still see part of the old latin inscription ‘Porta patens esto nulli claudatur honesto’. In English it means ‘Gate, be open! Let it be closed to no honest man’.
About the Speaker: Gareth Hayes
Gareth Hayes was born and bred in Appleby. Educated at the town’s Grammar School, where he was Head Boy in the 1970s. Gareth served as Mayor of Appleby from 2020 to early 2023. Amongst his many hobbies he lists enjoying the Great Outdoors as his most pleasurable pastime. He is also pictured above in an image taken when he served as Mayor.