LINTZFORD MILL BRIDGE

"Everybody loves a bridge. They are essentially romantic objects - brave, adventurous, usually handsome or at least interesting to look at, often magnificently idiosyncratic and every single one of them a seperate individual with its own personality, pedigree and background, each time to be freshly encountered and enjoyed."

Bridges. Sir Hugh Casson. 1963

This is an old 18th century bridge which replaced a wooden footbridge and a ford at a point about a mile upstream of Rowlands Gill and gives access to housing on the former industrial site. Once occupied by a corn mill and then in 1703 a paper mill, both powered by the Derwent's waters, (the weir is just upstream), the single arch bridge situated near a bend of the river is very picturesque. It has a shallow arch with pierced spandrels. The old buildings, supplemented by some new ones also built in stone, have been re-developed for housing. The buildings had latterly been used by Richardson's Printing Ink works since 1923 and the tall factory chimney was only demolished in 1994.

There is a track leading south from here which led to the former Lintz coal mine and on to the Burnopfield road, passing the old railway station at Lintz Green where the station master was murdered in 1911, an unsolved crime. Lintzford is now however, a peaceful hamlet disturbed only by the traffic up the valley on the main road nearby.

Lintzford Mill Bridge facts

Constructed - 18th Century
Type - single arch, stone.
Position: Lintzford, Tyne and Wear.
Grid Ref: NZ 149 573

Lintzford Mill Bridge

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