Catalogue description DEE BRIDGE COMMITTEES AND DEE BRIDGE COMMISSIONERS

Minutes

Letters

Bills & draft bills

Documents - rolls & other finance

Plans & specifications

SEE ALSO 810

Dee Bridge Commission

• Chester, Cheshire

The records listed below are the records of committees appointed at public meetings held at the Exchange between 1818 and 1824, and their sub committees; also the records of the Dee Bridge Commissioners appointed under the Act for Erecting an additional Bridge over the River Dee..., 1825, and the sub committee appointed at the first meeting of the Commissioners on 27 June 1825.

Before Thomas Telford's road from Shrewsbury to Holyhead was completed in 1830, travellers sailing to Ireland from Holyhead used the road along the North Wales coast, which involved crossing the Dee Bridge at Chester, and negotiating a ferry at Conway. The inconveniences, and even dangers of this route, had been appreciated as early as 1808, when Chester Corporation held a competition to select the best plans and estimates for a new bridge over the river Dee. Nevertheless, it was ten years before any further action was taken, inspired by the appointment in 1815 of Thomas Telford 1757-1834 to construct a new road from Shrewsbury to Holyhead, and the establishment in 1817 of the Exchequer Bill Loans Commission to help to finance the building of harbours, roads and bridges.

On 2 September 1818 the grand jury of Cheshire, meeting at Chester Castle, stated that a new bridge at Chester would be desirable, but disclaimed responsibility for its erection. At the same time application was made to Henry Bowers, mayor of Chester, 1817-1818, to call a public meeting to consider the erection of a new bridge. This meeting was held at the Exchange on 28 September 1818, and a committee appointed, which included the mayor, the two city treasurers, the two members of Parliament for the city, Earl Grosvenor and the Bishop of Chester. The Committee was empowered to consider plans, surveys and estimates, and at the first meeting, held on 3 October 1818, the Chester architect, Thomas Harrison 1744-1829 was requested to supply plans and estimates for a new bridge.

In the following March a second public meeting, also chaired by the mayor, was held in the Exchange. This meeting approved the sending of a petition to Parliament, to ask for the building of a bridge at Conway, it resolved to open a subscription for the widening of the Dee Bridge, and appointed a committee to negotiate with the owners of property affected by the widening of the Dee Bridge. This committee held its first meeting on 16 March 1819.

A third public meeting, held on 16 June 1820, resolved to petition Parliament to divert a proportion of the money voted for the construction of the road from Shrewsbury to Holyhead, to improving the Chester to Holyhead road, and building a bridge at Conway. Apparently this petition was unsuccessful, for the bankers and merchants of Chester held a meeting at the Exchange on 12 February 1821, and appointed a committee to petition the Postmaster General. The object of the petition was to secure an increase in the postage rates between England and Ireland, and the application of the additional revenue to the improvement of the Chester to Holyhead road.

No further action was taken until 1824. On 17 August a public meeting was held at the Exchange, which resolved to apply to Parliament for an Act to empower the improvement of the Dee Bridge, the erection of a new bridge and the construction of approach roads, this work involving the removal of St. Bridget's Church to a new site, and the charging of tolls on both bridges. This Act received the royal assent on 10 June 1825. It also gave responsibility for both bridges, and the proposed work, to Commissioners who held their first meeting on 27 June 1825, and appointed a sub committee with responsibility for carrying out the terms of the Act. The new bridge was opened by Princess Victoria, and named Grosvenor Bridge, on 17 October 1831.

For an account of its construction, see 'The Building of the Grosvenor Bridge' by J.W. Clarke, in Chester Archaeological Society Journal, 45, 1958.

The Dee Bridges were the responsibility of the Commissioners from 1825 until the Chester Improvement Act, 1884, empowered Chester Corporation to buy the undertaking for £31,652. 10s. The freeing of tolls on the Dee Bridges was achieved by contributions from private individuals, and from the Justices of the Peace of the counties of Cheshire, Flint and Denbigh. The Chester Tramways Company had been required by the Chester Tramways Act, 41 & 42 Vict. c. clxxiv, 1878, to pay to the Commissioners an annual sum for the use of the Grosvenor Bridge, and the Improvement Act of 1884 gave the Company the option of either contributing £1000 towards the freeing of the tolls, or paying £85 per annum to Chester Corporation until 1899. From December 1884 the Dee Bridges have been the responsibility of Chester Corporation