Jubilee Bridge @130 Traditional Cache

Old v New

Jubilee Bridge was built to provide a link from Fishlake, Sykehouse and the surrounding areas, to the market town of Thorne. It was opened on December 29^th 1887, in the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, when the nation celebrated her 50 years as monarch. The bridge is therefore 130 years old in 2017, the year that this cache was placed.

Funds to build the structure were raised by the Jubilee committee, largely composed of local businessmen, some of whom were contributors, along with two railway companies and the Badsworth Hunt.

The bridge was built at a location known as Fratson's Ferry and originally linked the Sykehouse Road and the ‘Sour Sluice’, the road across it is now known as ‘Ferry Road’.

Built of iron, the bridge is 12’ wide and has a total length of around 130’, with a central span of 90’. It was originally designed for a load of 10 tons and was built by Mr Radcliffe from Sheffield, under the supervision of Mr Pease, who was one of the committee members and had been among the financial contributors.

The bridge is a single track road, without traffic lights and until the refurbishment in 2019, had an unusual, noisy road surface. The weight limit is presently 3 Tons, so the listed parking area is inaccessible from the M18 by anything larger than a small van.

The current structure has undergone several modifications, including the addition of brickwork on the approaches, to both restrict the width of passing vehicles (and thus indirectly limit their weight) and to provide a means of implementing flood defences.

This cache can be done as a quick park and grab, with space for a few cars within 15m of the container. There is no segregated footpath across the bridge, even though it forms part of the route of both the Peatlands Way and the Thorne Round Walk. Please note that the cache should be retrieved without needing to stand in the roadway, use the refuge beyond the brick wall, after crossing the road from the parking place.