Trisha Shetty (Editor)

Exeter Bridge

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Carries
  
Traffic

Locale
  
Derbyshire

Design
  
Road Bridge

Opened
  
20 March 1929

Total length
  
50 m

Body of water
  
River Derwent, Derbyshire

Crosses
  
River Derwent

Maintained by
  
Derby City Council

Designer
  
Charles Herbert Aslin

Height
  
10 m

Width
  
15 m

Architect
  
Charles Herbert Aslin

Exeter Bridge httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediacommonsthu

Similar
  
Exeter House, Derby Silk Mill, Cathedral Green Footbridge, Handyside Bridge, Derby Canal

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Exeter Bridge is a Traffic Single Span Concrete Arch Bridge in the centre of Derby spanning the River Derwent 200 metres south of the more modern Cathedral Green Footbridge.

Contents

History

Derby's original Exeter Bridge started life as a timber footbridge built by the Binghams of Exeter House, in order to access their gardens on the other side of the River Derwent. Exeter House was eventually demolished because of cost and to allow improvements to the bridge to be made. The old Exeter bridge was demolished in 1929 and replaced by a single span concrete style designed by Charles Herbert Aslin of the City Architect's Department, who was also responsible for Derby's now demolished Art Deco Style Bus Station.

During construction a test was carried out to see if it would hold the weight of the traffic. Civil Engineers ran a procession of traction engines, steam rollers and heavy lorries across the bridge to see if it could take the strain.

It was officially opened by the minister of transport, Herbert Morrison on 13 March 1931.

Exeter Bridge features Bas relief sculptures of.

  • John Lombe, founder of the Silk Mill Museum one of England's first modern factories, now a World Heritage site.
  • William Hutton, worked at the Silk Mill as a child before becoming a bookseller and writing the first published history of Derby in 1791.
  • Herbert Spencer, born in Exeter Street, best known for coining the concept "survival of the fittest", which he did in Principles of Biology (1864), after reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species.
  • Erasmus Darwin, Physician, botanist and poet, Darwin lived in Derby for the last 20 years of his life, dying at Breadsall Priory. Like Hutton he was a radical thinker, supporting the American Revolution.
  • References

    Exeter Bridge Wikipedia