Qualla: High Bridge, Lincoln

High Bridge, Lincoln: Introduction

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit David Dixon, CC BY-SA 2.0. Once upon a time medieval bridges all over Europe carried buildings - the bridges were valuable real estate, after all, with constant foot traffic and limited supply of frontage - and Old London Bridge was the most famous example, lined with houses and shops, even a chapel in the middle, that stayed in place for six hundred years before the whole structure was finally demolished in the 1830s. Almost all the others went the same way: knocked down to widen the river for shipping, or to ease the flow during floods, or because the buildings on top finally became too dangerous to maintain. High Bridge in Lincoln is the only one in the United Kingdom that survived. The bridge itself dates to around 1160. The half-timbered shops perched on top of it date to about 1550. They are, together, the only intact medieval bridge-with-buildings still functioning in Britain - and a tea shop has been operating in the one on the corner since 1937.

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Image: David Dixon | CC BY-SA 2.0

High Bridge, Lincoln: The Glory Hole

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Rodhullandemu, CC BY-SA 3.0. Boaters call it the Glory Hole, a name that probably has nothing to do with what you might be thinking. The phrase has been used by Witham bargemen for centuries to describe the narrow, dark, slightly menacing arch through which they had to thread their boats. After heavy rain th...

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Image: Rodhullandemu | CC BY-SA 3.0

High Bridge, Lincoln: Built in 1160, More or Less

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Brian from UK, CC BY-SA 2.0. The bridge was constructed around 1160, in the reign of Henry II, on a site where some kind of bridge probably already existed. The ribs of the original 12th-century structure still survive inside the present masonry - five barrel-vaulted ribs running across the span - making Hig...

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Image: Brian from UK | CC BY-SA 2.0

High Bridge, Lincoln: Shops Instead of a Chapel

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Mr M Evison, CC BY-SA 2.0. The Reformation ended the bridge chapel in 1549 - the same wave of dissolution that broke up the Greyfriars and Whitefriars in Lincoln. With no priest to maintain the bridge, the corporation took it over directly. In the 1540s, the upstream side of the bridge was extended with a ...

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Image: Mr M Evison | CC BY-SA 2.0

High Bridge, Lincoln: Stokes Coffee

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Betty Longbottom, CC BY-SA 2.0. The shop on the corner has been Stokes Tea & Coffee since 1937, and the same family-owned company has been there ever since. R. W. Stokes & Sons started roasting coffee in Lincoln in 1902 and took over the High Bridge corner shop thirty-five years later. The coffee shop occupies ...

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Image: Betty Longbottom | CC BY-SA 2.0

High Bridge, Lincoln: Walking the Bridge

Wed, 27 May 2026 00:00:00 GMT

Photo credit Marek69, CC BY-SA 4.0. The High Street through Lincoln was pedestrianised in 1971, after a bypass took the modern traffic away from the city centre. The pedestrianisation gave the bridge back to walkers, and you can now stand on it and look down through the Glory Hole arch at the slow brown Witham flow...

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Image: Marek69 | CC BY-SA 4.0