Designed in 1797 by John Carr

Building completed in 1804
by Bernard Hartley

An advert was placed in the 21 January 1797 edition of the Leeds Mercury for a competition to design a new bridge crossing at Ferrybridge. Plans had to be submitted within 5 days of the advert being published. John Carr, an eminent architect from York, at the age of 74, submitted the winning entry.
Bernard Hartley was appointed Surveyor in 1797 and commenced building the Bridge using direct labour.
An abstract from the accounts for the years 1799 to 1803 contains some interesting information regarding the expenditure on the erection of the bridge. In 1799 the cost of "ale" supplied to the workmen was £142 (about 1/30 of the total annual bill). The amount spent on "ale" in the following year was drastically reduced to about £10.
The total cost of the bridge is not clear, however the total cost of the works up to April 21st April 1803 was approximately £24,864.
The Bridge was scheduled as an ancient monument in the 1930's.

(Photographs reproduced with the kind permission of Wakefield Metropolitan District Council)