Ruswarp’s Chainbridge

Above the weir at Ruswarp, the River Esk, free of tidal interference, stretches out and saunters along with all the urgency of a Sunday afternoon. One may hire a rowing boat and pretend to enjoy the serenity while counting the minutes. We passed a holiday cottage, optimistically named Chainbridge Cottage, despite the lack of any obvious bridge. Across the river stood a refined building, apparently a restaurant, which may or may not be as elegant as it thinks it is. And yes, on the far bank, that forlorn stump might indeed be the remains of an abutment for a bridge.

There was indeed once a suspension bridge here, erected in 1825 by one Colonel James Wilson of Sneaton Castle¹Durham Chronicle – Saturday 03 September 1825. Before the railway arrived to make everything irrelevant, the river could be impassable at high tide, so Wilson, in a fit of public spirit (or self-promotion), had a bridge built. The design was called simple yet beautiful, the praise effusive, the admiration loud. Wilson had recently acquired Sneaton Manor and felt the need to mark his arrival with crenellations and a rebuilt church. One could hardly move for signs of his generosity. He even briefly served as MP for York, though only until his timely death in 1830. St. Hilda’s church still holds a memorial trumpeting “HE RAISED HIMSELF TO WEALTH, RANK, AND INFLUENCE,” a line that likely came straight from the colonel’s own pen, composed for the ages.

Where did this wealth come from? A most awkward question. It turns out the colonel owned the Cane Grove plantation on St Vincent, maintained by 231 enslaved people in 1827. Upon abolition, compensation was duly paid—not to the enslaved, of course, but to Wilson’s trustees. His acts of philanthropy and taste for castellated buildings, then, had their roots in sugar and bondage²James Wilson MP. Profile & Legacies Summary. 1772 – 1830. Ucl.ac.uk. (2015). Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery. [online] Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146644189 [Accessed 11 Jul. 2022]..

Wilson acquired the plantation in 1807. Prior to the purchase, the seller had thoughtfully sold a two-year-old child, Ashton Warner, and his mother to the child’s aunt. A touching family arrangement, soured only by the inconvenient detail that island custom held a child sold with its mother was not to be treated as property until the ripe old age of five or six. Wilson chose to overlook this subtlety. At age ten, Warner was dragged back to the estate to enjoy the delights of forced labour. After some fourteen years, he escaped, sought justice, and managed to publish his account in 1831—shortly after his death at twenty-four³Slavery and the British Country House. Edited by Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann. 2013 . A brief life, made longer only by suffering.

As for the bridge, it lasted a grand total of three years before the Esk, unimpressed by Wilson’s efforts, washed it away in 1828⁴Tyne Mercury; Northumberland and Durham and Cumberland Gazette – Tuesday 22 July 1828. Most of the structure promptly went to sea. Wilson presumably had another go. In 1835, local residents Smales Jackson and his wife drowned mysteriously near the bridge. One of Jackson’s children saw them in the water, informed the toll-keeper, and by the time help arrived, there was nothing left but some tell-tale bubbling. They had been married a fortnight or so, their sudden exit leaving Jackson’s children inconveniently orphaned⁵Weekly True Sun – Sunday 04 October 1835.

The bridge’s misfortune continued. In 1880, the suspension bridge was once again swept away by floodwater, reportedly flung over the dam like yesterday’s scrap and nearly taking the new railway bridge with it⁶Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Friday 29 October 1880. By month’s end, the authorities had given up any lingering romantic notions and were instead soliciting offers to haul the wreckage out of the river⁷Whitby Gazette – Saturday 20 November 1880. Thus ended Ruswarp’s love affair with suspension bridges.

• 1
  Durham Chronicle – Saturday 03 September 1825
• 2
  James Wilson MP. Profile & Legacies Summary. 1772 – 1830. Ucl.ac.uk. (2015). Summary of Individual | Legacies of British Slavery. [online] Available at: https://www.ucl.ac.uk/lbs/person/view/2146644189 [Accessed 11 Jul. 2022].
• 3
  Slavery and the British Country House. Edited by Madge Dresser and Andrew Hann. 2013
• 4
  Tyne Mercury; Northumberland and Durham and Cumberland Gazette – Tuesday 22 July 1828
• 5
  Weekly True Sun – Sunday 04 October 1835
• 6
  Sheffield Daily Telegraph – Friday 29 October 1880
• 7
  Whitby Gazette – Saturday 20 November 1880