Though now known as Rievaulx Bridge it was more frequently recorded as Scawton Bridge in the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and the first bridge was there in the middle of the 12th century and referred to as Hengenderbriggam in territorio de Scaltona, a hanging bridge recorded in the grant of land at Scaltun to the Abbots of Rievaulx.
The exact location of that bridge is not known but as the grant also listed the land known as Oswaldhenges which stretched as far as the River Rye and whose eastern boundary was defined by Nettlebeck it is not likely to have been too far from the present-day bridge.
The hanging bridge over the Rye linked Rievaulx with Spurriergate the only road to the south and as the numbers of travellers to and from the Abbey and the shipments of goods, particularly wool increased the monks must have thought the old bridge to be inadequate and as they were given the right to alter the course of the river in the last quarter of the 12th century they built a new bridge at the same time and by the beginning of the 17th century when it had been in existence for over 400 years money was regularly needed for its repair.
The people of Rievaulx jealously guarded what they considered to be their rights to the bridge and early in the 18th century Edward Skelton, Sylvester Sturdy and Christopher Spence, all Scawton tenants of Sir Thomas Fairfax were fined one shilling each at a Rievaulx Manor Court for ‘washing sheep at Rivalx Bridge when they had no right’.
In the last half of the 17th century five separate payments amounting to £48 15s 10d were made for the repair of Scawton Bridge and in 1735 it was reported that ‘the foundations of the middle and north arches of Scawton Bridge
had been undermined by floods and battlement stones were loose and thrown down’ so it is perhaps not surprising that in 1754 when there was a Great Flood a haystack floated down down the river and stuck under the bridge until the volume of water finally brought about its destruction.
The present-day bridge was built in 1756 and for many years a huge timber support from the old bridge lay in the river. There at the beginning of the new millennium the huge piece of wood could have possibly come from a tree planted before the end of the last one and when it was washed away in the floods of October 2004 at least 900 years of history went with it.
The designers and builders of the present-day bridge could not have imagined the amount and weight of traffic that would pass over their bridge designed for pedestrian and horse drawn vehicles and it is a tribute to their skill that it remains in such good condition.
