Horkstow Bridge

Horkstow Bridge is a suspension bridge that spans the New River Ancholme near the village of Horkstow in North Lincolnshire. It was designed by Sir John Rennie as part of the River Ancholme Drainage Scheme, completed in 1836, and is a Grade II* listed building.

The River Ancholme rises south of Bishopbridge in Lincolnshire, flows northwards through the town of Brigg and the Ancholme Level, an area of fenland, and enters the Humber at Ferriby Sluice. Attempts were made to drain the wetland and improve the navigability of the river as early as the 13th century, and in the 1630s Sir John Monson constructed the first sluice gates near South Ferriby and a new straight channel, the Ancholme Navigation, to drain the Level and protect the town of Brigg from flooding. A 1767 Act of Parliament authorised works towards "the more effectual draining the Lands lying in the Level of Ancholme" and making the river navigable as high as Bishopbridge, to be financed by a land tax and the imposition of tolls on goods carried. Two further Acts followed to enlarge the powers of the first. Under the 1825 Act, Sir John Rennie proposed the New River Ancholme Drainage Scheme, by which the navigation, or New River Ancholme, was straightened, widened and deepened, existing small bridges with many arches were replaced by single-span structures, and the locks at Ferriby Sluice were enlarged.

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