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| Looking north under Gibraltar Bridge after closure of the Tanfield Branch (note the netty). The span of the arch would accommodate both wooden main & bye ways of 3'10" gauge. |
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| The arch was destroyed during the early 1970s to save maintenance. Ian & Eric were part of the rebuilding team in the late 1980s. |
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| HL No.2 heading south under the rebuilt arch, on the original abutments (photo courtesy of John Turnock) |
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| 49 passing under Gibraltar Bridge on the way to Sunniside (photo courtesy of Ken Snowdon) |
3 comments:
Hi Derek,
The name “Gibraltar Bridge” could possibly be derived from the former Gibraltar Row, which was located where the current visitor’s car park at Andrews House is now. This was a row of 3 or 4 houses built for the families of workers who worked at Marley Hill Colliery. They were demolished some time after 1950.
Thomas
Hi Derek,
Following your discussion with me yesterday I did more research this morning and found an OS map dated 1857. It is the earliest map available on the public domain and shows the bridge built, but not the row of houses. This now defines that the houses were named after the bridge.
But why was it Gibraltar Row and Gibraltar Bridge? Well, there is an area of land to the north east of the bridge named Gibraltar, which in 1857 was just land, but it was first marked on the maps with the name in around 1854. But why the name “Gibraltar”? I was struggling to find info on why it is named as such, so more research followed, and found that the country of Gibraltar itself may, but not definitely, had an impact! When the land was named Gibraltar, the country of Gibraltar had just been designated one of four Imperial British fortresses for the ongoing Crimean War, which had started in the same year.
There’s a chance the wealthy landowner read about this, and seeing that Gibraltar was a name of a very strong imperial fortress, decided to name the land after it in order to bring money and trade to the area as everyone got to know about the war, and the imperial fortresses of the British Empire during that war. The landowner may have realised that if such a place name was reaching headlines for being a very successful outpost for protecting the empire, then the businesses in the area may flourish as well.
There is no way of confirming this, but it’s a clever theory. As time goes on I am to try to find more information, but for now it’s to be theories based upon the public domain’s local info and culture from the time.
Thomas
totally agree with Thomas Whyte's research so what we have to find out is why 'the Rock' is called Gibraltar!
and let's hope Brian High who raised the question reads Thomas' research
Malcolm Sunter aka Cruncher
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