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Capital Of England --Swarkstone Bridge
Swarkstone Bridge
Swarkestone
Bridge, the longest stone bridge in England.
The cairn close to Swarkestone Bridge marking the southern
most point reached by the invading Highland army.
Swarkestone
Bridge and the River Trent
Swarkstone Bridge
Swarkestone Bridge is
almost a mile in length and crosses an area of low-lying marshy land as
well as the River Trent. It was originally built in the early 13th
century, on behalf of two beautiful sisters of the Bellamont family, in
memory of their fiancés, as legend has it.
The sisters were holding a
party to celebrate their joint betrothal when
the two young men were summoned to attend a meeting of barons on the
other side of the Trent. They reached the meeting safely, but while
they were there, the river became swollen by a rainstorm. Although it
became a flood of rushing water, the men were eager to get back to
their beautiful sweethearts and attempted to ford the river on
horseback. Their horses swam valiantly against the torrent but their
efforts were in vain. Both men were swept away and drowned.
The heartbroken Bellamont
girls built the bridge over the Trent to
prevent such a tragedy occurring again, and in memory of the drowned
men. Neither girl ever married. In fact the legend states that they
spent so much money on the bridge that they died not only unwed, but
also in extreme poverty, being buried in one grave in Prestwold Church
in Leicestershire. Their ghosts are said to be seen on stormy nights
when the River Trent is swollen, looking for their lost loves who were
so tragically drowned in the river's murky waters.
When Charles Edward Stuart
and his small army of Highlanders reached Derby on 4 December 1745, one
of their most important tasks was to send a party the seven miles from
Derby to Swarkestone to try to secure the bridge over the River Trent.
Swarkestone Bridge is the longest stone bridge in England, and in 1745
it was the only bridge across the River Trent between Burton and
Nottingham. For the prince's army it was also the only way to London
and probable victory.
Seventy Highland soldiers,
probably cavalry, were sent to secure the
bridge, and they reached it four hours before Government troops, who
had been ordered to destroy the bridge to stop Charlie's army from
crossing it. Those 70 Scottish soldiers held Swarkestone Bridge until 6
December. Some of them went over it to Melbourne, to warn locals to
prepare billets for the Highland army when they crossed over on their
way to take the throne from King George II. This was not to be, of
course, the decision being made at Derby to turn back. Thus,
Swarkestone Bridge was the farthest point south reached by Bonnie
Prince Charlie's troops.
Some 102 years earlier
there had been a skirmish on Swarkestone Bridge between troops of
Bonnic Prince Charlie's great-grandfather, Charles 1, and those of
Oliver Cromwell during the English Civil War. Sir John Harpur of
Swarkestone fortified his own home, and the bridge as well. Sir John
Gell, the Parliamentary commandant of Derby, led his own regiment out
of the town and hurled them against the Royalist barricades at
Swarkestone Bridge. Seven or eight men were killed during that skirmish.
There have been many
strange sightings at Swarkestone, one of the most
interesting coming from a gentleman who told me: "I was walking my dog.
It was late at night and it had just started to rain when in the
distance, I could hear the sound of horses' hooves. I thought at the
time that it was locals out for a late ride. This thought was soon
dismissed as the noise of horses' hooves became accompanied by the
sound of clatter and talking which became louder and louder. My
curiosity aroused, I waited in anticipation for the late riders to
appear. They never did, although the noises became louder still, until,
in the end when I thought that I could take it no more, the noise and
the chaotic clatter stopped.
My dog Harvey, with me all
the time that the clamour was taking place,
seemed not to have been affected by what had happened. Further along
Swarkestone Bridge, I met a lady who also was walking her dogs and
asked her if she had seen or heard anything. She looked at me blankly,
stating that she did not know what I was talking about. I also asked
two other people in the vicinity but they, likewise, denied hearing
anything. Several months later, I was telling an elderly aunt about my
experience. She did not seem unduly surprised and when I had finished
she told me that she too had heard something similar in 1948. My aunt
also told me that what I had experienced was apparently the ghosts of
Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Highlanders trying to cross the bridge."
Is it possible that this
gentleman heard the ghosts of a cavalry detachment belonging to Bonnie
Prince Charlie as they were being recalled back to Derby for the long
retreat to Scotland and the eventual destruction of the Highland army
at the Battle of Culloden?
Or could it have been the
battling troops of Charles I and Cromwell's
armies re-enacting a skirmish on Swarkestone Bridge on 5 January 1643?
