Town Street Bridge 

The Ely Coucher Book of 1251 mentions 15 tenants called bridgemen who are responsible for the upkeep of a bridge at Brandon. As there is no mention of this bridge in a record of 1222, it was presumably built between these two dates. We know that this bridge had a resident hermit as, in 1459, John Pepper, the bailiff of bishop William, was instructed to install John Herryman in the hermitage on the bridge as successor to, Richard Paskelowe, deceased. The hermit was responsible for the priestly duties at the chapel dedicated to the Blessed Virgin (and possibly St Etheldreda), which stood on the bridge. In the same year, Bishop William granted forty days indulgence to those who contributed to the repair of the bridge. The repairs appear not to have been well done as only six years later he granted further indulgences and more were granted in 1495. At sometime in the following century the bridge at Town Street appears to have fallen into disrepair and been replaced by a Ferry. B.A.M. Lingwood, in his Brandon Notes, suggests that the site of this bridge was at the end of Small Fen Lane in Town Street opposite to Fengate Drove, on the Weeting side. He also suggests that the provision of a level crossing in the railway at the end of Fengate Drove indicates that this ferry was operating at least until the 1840's.

John Basham ©2000