Midge Hole Bridge
Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places
Overview
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1426882
- Date first listed:
- 08-Dec-2015
- List Entry Name:
- Midge Hole Bridge
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Location
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Discover moreOfficial list entry
- Heritage Category:
- Listed Building
- Grade:
- II
- List Entry Number:
- 1426882
- Date first listed:
- 08-Dec-2015
- List Entry Name:
- Midge Hole Bridge
- Location Description:
- Stone bridge over Trawden Brook at Midge Hole, Trawden, Colne, Lancashire. National Grid SD 391758 437645
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
The scope of legal protection for listed buildings
This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.
Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.
For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.
Location
The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.
- County:
- Lancashire
- District:
- Pendle (District Authority)
- Parish:
- Trawden Forest
- National Grid Reference:
- SD9175737644
Summary
Bridge, medieval or post-medieval in date, with later parapet.
Reasons for Designation
Midge Hole Bridge, of medieval or post medieval date, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as a small single-span road bridge of modest construction that nevertheless demonstrates consideration in its design and use of materials;
* Intactness: it is an intact structure and the added parapets, of uncertain date have been constructed in the same style and materials;
* Date: dating from the medieval or post-medieval period it falls within the periods when most bridges are listed.
History
Trawden Forest was one of several forests in the area developed for oxen or ‘vaccary’ farming around 1200 by the de Lacey overlords, based in Pontefract. Deer hunting continued to take place in enclosed parks such as that in Trawden known as Trawden chase, which contained a hunting lodge called Stag Hall. The vaccary farms and deer parks of this area have undergone study for more than a decade and their boundaries have been identified. The original C13 route from Yorkshire to Stag Hall has been traced as part of this study as a series of hollow ways and public footpaths, and this early route crossing the Trawden Brook at the location of the present Midge Hole Bridge. While this does not provide conclusive dating evidence that the present bridge is medieval in date, its quality and size suggest it is a bridge of some antiquity. By the time of the survey of the First Edition Ordnance Survey map in 1844, the importance of the route had declined and it is depicted as a footbridge.
Details
Bridge, medieval or post-medieval in date, with later parapet.
A single span bridge spanning Trawden Brook, constructed of lightly dressed rubble stonework. One side of the arch springs from a large bedrock slab while the other side is constructed to the bottom of the stream bed. The bridge comprises a segmental arch with neatly laid roughly wedge-shaped voussoirs. There is a low slightly splayed parapet of similar stonework.
Legal
This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.
The listed building(s) is/are shown coloured blue on the attached map. Pursuant to s.1 (5A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 (‘the Act’), structures attached to or within the curtilage of the listed building (save those coloured blue on the map) are not to be treated as part of the listed building for the purposes of the Act.
Map
This map is for quick reference purposes only and may not be to scale. This copy shows the entry on 10-Jun-2026 at 21:52:28.
Download a full scale map (PDF)End of official list entry
All text content is available under the Open Government Licence v3.0 , except where otherwise stated. Any supplied maps are © Crown Copyright [and database rights] 2026 OS AC0000815036 and may not be reproduced without permission.