BEGGARS BRIDGE----GLAISDALE.

While on one of are trips to the North Yorkshire Moors we decided to take a look at the beggars bridge, it`s  one of those places that if you don`t know it`s there you can easily drive past it without knowing, as it is between a railway bridge and a road bridge. This beautiful humpbacked bridge is in Glaisdale spanning the river Esk. There is a lovely romantic legend regarding this bridge. It goes like this and I quote from the Insight guide to the North Yorkshire Moors book, it`s the courtship of the squires daughter by local farmhand Thomas Ferris. Told by the squire that his daughter wasn`t going to marry a beggar, Tom vowed to make his fortune. The night before he sailed from Whitby on this mission, a flood on the Esk, at the time crossed only by a ford or stepping stones, prevented him bidding farewell to his sweetheart. Eventually returning rich -the fruit of piracy some say - he not only married the girl but built a bridge for future lovers. There is almost certainly some truth in the tale, for a 17th - century Hull shipowner, Thomas Ferris, left substantial bequests to Glaisdale Parish Church, and his initials, with the date 1619, are on the outer upstream parapet of the bridge.

 

 

 

I had to balance on two stepping stones to get this picture. The river Esk is not deep at this point but never the less it would have covered my shoes.

 

 

 

Three silly beggars, me on the left, my mate Daz on the right and the third my brother in law Barrie using my camera to take the picture.