button to main menu  Old Cumbria Gazetteer
Wasdale Old Bridge, Shap Rural
Wasdale Old Bridge
site name:-   Wasdale Beck
civil parish:-   Shap Rural (formerly Westmorland)
civil parish:-   Orton S (formerly Westmorland)
county:-   Cumbria
locality type:-   bridge
coordinates:-   NY56470835
1Km square:-   NY5608
10Km square:-   NY50

photograph
BMT14.jpg  On an old route of Kendal to Shap.
(taken 6.10.2006)  
evidence:-   old map:- OS County Series (Wmd 21 14) 
placename:-  Wasdale Old Bridge
source data:-   Maps, County Series maps of Great Britain, scales 6 and 25 inches to 1 mile, published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton, Hampshire, from about 1863 to 1948.
evidence:-   old map:- Ogilby 1675 (plate 38) 
source data:-   Road strip map, hand coloured engraving, continuation of the Road from London to Carlisle, scale about 1 inch to 1 mile, by John Ogilby, London, 1675.
image
OG38m267.jpg
In mile 267, Westmorland. 
River crossed by the road, no bridge drawn. 
item:-  JandMN : 21
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old map:- Morden 1695 (Wmd) 
source data:-   Map, hand coloured engraving, Westmorland, scale about 2.5 miles to 1 inch, by Robert Morden, published by Abel Swale, the Unicorn, St Paul's Churchyard, Awnsham, and John Churchill, the Black Swan, Paternoster Row, London, 1695.
image
MD10NY51.jpg
Bridge, unclear road river crossing. 
item:-  JandMN : 24
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   old text:- Gents Mag
placename:-  Wastal Bridge
item:-  rebellion, 1745; 1745 Rebellion
source data:-   Magazine, The Gentleman's Magazine or Monthly Intelligencer or Historical Chronicle, published by Edward Cave under the pseudonym Sylvanus Urban, and by other publishers, London, monthly from 1731 to 1922.
image G7450625, button  goto source
Gentleman's Magazine 1745 p.625  "... ..."
"... that from their [rebels, 1745] first entering England, till they came to Derby, they seem's resolv'd upon marching directly to London; but that at Derby, having heard how the D. of Cumberland's army was posted, a council of war was call'd, in which it was resolv'd to return by Carlisle into Scotland; ..."
"Appleby, Dec. 14. In obedience to a letter sent to the deputy-lieutenants of Westmorland and Cumberland, by his R.H. the D. of Cumberland, requiring them, by all means, to retard and obstruct the march of the rebels thro' thos two counties, a resolution had just been taken to raise part of the county to demolish Wastal bridge, to make the road from Kendal to Shap impassable for the artillery of the rebels, or any wheel-carriages; and for the same reason to break up the road down Graridge Hawse; whereby it is hoped their march may be so far retarded, as to give time to his R.H.'s army to come up with them, before they can get clear of these counties. ..."
evidence:-   old map:- Jefferys 1770 (Wmd) 
source data:-   Map, 4 sheets, The County of Westmoreland, scale 1 inch to 1 mile, surveyed 1768, and engraved and published by Thomas Jefferys, London, 1770.
image
J5NY50NE.jpg
double line, road, across a stream; bridge 
item:-  National Library of Scotland : EME.s.47
Image © National Library of Scotland
evidence:-   old map:- Cary 1789 (edn 1805) 
source data:-   Map, uncoloured engraving, Westmoreland, scale about 2.5 miles to 1 inch, by John Cary, London, 1789; edition 1805.
image
CY24NY50.jpg
road across a stream; bridge over the Wasdale Beck 
item:-  JandMN : 129
Image © see bottom of page
evidence:-   descriptive text:- Otley 1823 (5th edn 1834) 
placename:-  Wasdale Bridge
item:-  geology
source data:-   Guide book, A Concise Description of the English Lakes, the mountains in their vicinity, and the roads by which they may be visited, with remarks on the mineralogy and geology of the district, by Jonathan Otley, published by the author, Keswick, Cumberland now Cumbria, by J Richardson, London, and by Arthur Foster, Kirkby Lonsdale, Cumbria, 1823; published 1823-49, latterly as the Descriptive Guide to the English Lakes.
image OT01P151, button  goto source
Page 151:-  "... Another variety of granite with reddish felspar in large crystals, is found on Shap Fells, and may be observed in situ on the road side near Wasdale Bridge, about four miles south of Shap."

JandMN : 403
photograph
BXO45.jpg  Rock, hand specimen of a igneous rock, Shap granite, a porphyry, from the streambed at Wasdale Old Bridge, Shap Rural, Westmorland, NY56470835, 24 August 2012.
Lower Devonian.
The grey crystals are quartz; silcon dioxide, Si02.
The white crystals are feldspars; sodium aluminium silicate, NaAlSi3O8, or potassium aluminium silicate, KAlSi3O8, or calcium aluminium silicate, CaAl2Si2O3.
The black crystals are biotie or perhaps hornblende, complicated lattice silicates.
This is a porphyry; the larger pink crystals are orthoclase feldspar; these phenocrysts indicate a very slow cooling of the igneous intrusion.
(taken 24.8.2008)  

photograph
BMT15.jpg  View of river.
(taken 6.10.2006)  
photograph
BMT16.jpg  View of river.
Shap granite in the stream bed at Wasdale Old Bridge. note, these have been washed downstream from their original bed.
(taken 6.10.2006)  
photograph
BPQ26.jpg  View of river.
Shap granite in the stream bed at Wasdale Old Bridge, note, these have been washed downstream from their original bed.
(taken 24.8.2008)  
photograph
BPQ27.jpg  View of river.
Rocks and water at Wasdale Old Bridge.
(taken 24.8.2008)  
button to lakes menu  Lakes Guides menu.