Union Road High-Level Bridge - 1884

The building of the High Level bridge across The Torrs joining New Mills and Newtown was an event which caused both great excitement and concern locally. It was a contentious project, as the money to erect the bridge was recouped on the rates.

Prior to the opening of the bridge all traffic to and from Newtown which was then in Cheshire, had to travel over the Church Road Bridge and along Hyde Bank Road to the New Mills Bridge at the foot of High Street. The Local Board had been petitioned by ratepayers soon after its formation in 1876 for the necessity of creating some direct means of communication between the portion of New Mills situated in the County of Derby and that rising locality known as Newtown in the County of Cheshire.'

So close was the councils debate, that the decision to build the bridge rested on the chairman's casting vote. The new road built to cross the bridge was named Union Road signifying the new bond between New Mills and Newtown.

Speech delivered by the Chairman of the Board on the occasion of the opening of the High Level Bridge:
"We have come a long way to get to this day. Our forefathers had such vision half a century ago when they built the Hayfield Newtown Turnpike Road bridging the River Goyt across to Cheshire, close to the Queens Arms Hotel. And yet, another bridge was needed to make the link between New Mills and Newtown complete. It has been talked about for all the years of my long association with this board.  It has long been recognised that the low level route across the Torrs is both steep and dangerous and almost impassable for horses and carts. 

"I recall plans a full twelve years ago for a three-arch bridge across the Torrs and then a mere two years ago, in June 1882, the local board was petitioned by a good number of owners and ratepayers of the town seeking the erection of a bridge to link us across the river to Cheshire. A bridge committee was set up under the able chairmanship of Thomas Saxton which recommended in June of that year that a new road be made leading from the corner of the Railway Hotel, across the Torr Top Meadow, along a high level bridge over the Torrs and joining the Hayfield Newtown Road past the corner of the Queens Arms.

"Mr. Story of Derby was charged with preparing a set of plans and in November of 1882 Thomas Saxton proposed and James Hibbert seconded that we should proceed at an estimated cost of three and a half thousand pounds.  And yet, even on this Whit Saturday, with the town gaily decorated there are those who still think that this bridge should not have been erected, but many of those who doubted the wisdom of this enterprise have seen the errors of their ways since that meeting in November 1882 when I gave my casting vote that the erection of this bridge should go ahead.

"The rightfulness of that momentous decision has grown ever more apparent with the passage of time - since April last year when Mr. Walmsley of Crumpsall, near Manchester was taken on at the tendered sum of three thousand two hundred pounds to erect the bridge - since the 30th of that month when I cut the first sod on the Derbyshire  side of the Torrs and Samuel Lowe cut the first sod on the Cheshire side - and since James Hibbert laid the first foundation stone less than twelve months ago on June 21st 1883 - and since the laying of the last keystone in February this year by Miss Emily Saxton.

"I would not presume to say that construction has passed without incident.  There were those who deplored the demolition of Torr Top Hall which had stood for almost 200 years.  There was the threat of injunction by the Torr Mill Company during construction, although I wish to place on recorded that Mr. Schofield of Liverpool, the owner of Torr Mill and the land on which the pillars rest has behaved most handsomely. And indeed, but for the co-operation of all, in particular Mr. John Knorr, agent for the Jodrell Estate, which gave all land on the Cheshire side and Mr. W.H. Turner J.P who gave all the land on the Derbyshire side, this magnificent bridge would not have come about.

"I have no doubt whatsoever that in one hundred years time from now, this bridge will stand proud as an edifice of the spirit of this time. Let us earnestly hope that its contribution to the prosperity of this town will have been invested wisely so that all townspeople men, and women, young and old alike, can take their rightful share of the wealth and well being that it will surely bring. Citizens of New Mills - the last corner stone has been laid. I declare this high level bridge open."