Corporation Bridge & Victoria Mills.

Corporation Bridge, Grimsby.

The bridge spans Alexandra Dock near Victoria Mills, Victoria Street and replaced a swing bridge.

It is an electrically powered Sherzer rolling lift bascule road bridge, built at a cost of almost £60,000 in 1925 by Alfred C Gardner, Docks Engineer to the London and North Eastern Railway; Sir William Arrol & Co. of Glasgow, contractors, for Grimsby Corporation, it was opened by the Prince of Wales three years later. The bridge was restored by Great Grimsby Borough Council c. 1980.

Above information courtesy of Wikipedia.

Photo from Wikipedia.

This shows how the single bascule bridge was operated.  Unfortunately, I can remember seeing 

the bridge lifted when I was a boy! (A very young boy!) 

The traffic was stopped and  gates would prevent anyone advancing onto the bridge.  

The whole road deck would then lift to allow boats to proceed through from the main docks area to the Riverhead.  

Many years ago this was a thriving and 

very busy area in the town where boats loaded & unloaded.  The closing of trade to the 

Riverhead and boats no longer needing access to the inner part of the Alexander Dock meant

there was no longer a need to open the bridge and it was left to fall into disrepair.

The last boat to pass through from the outer dock into the inner Alexander Dock was the

Ross Tiger and the whole of the bridge section and upper structures had to be removed, the hull

could then "just" pass below the bridge at low tide and then the bridge etc was welded back on! 

Corporation Bridge with the Victoria Mills building in the background.
Both are iconic structures for the people of Grimsby. 

The mill was used to grind and store flour but closed many years ago and is now derelict.
The front of the building was renovated some years back and converted to appartments.

Ross Tiger, permanently berthed alongside the Fishing Heritage Centre.
More information about it is on my last blog post (Fishing Heritage Centre)

This image clearly shows the Control Room where the lifting of the roadway section was controlled from

and also the curve of the bascule.

A better view of the bascule mechanics.

The bridge is an iron riveted structure very much in the style of bridges built many years
before during the heydays of the Industrial Revolution. 

Old alongside new at Alexandra Dock.