View of Fotheringhay Bridge with St Mary and All Saints Church in the background . The village was visited by Queen Elizabeth I in 1573, who was shocked to see the desecrated tombs of her Royal ancestors amid the wrecked remains of the collegiate church. She ordered that they be reinterred inside the parish church, with twin monuments erected on the eastern wall. She also arranged for the local schoolmaster to be paid a salary of £20 per annum and commanded the decrepit old wooden bridge across the River Nene, adjacent to the castle, to be replaced. It had been noted as long before as 1330 that it was ‘broken so that hardly any winter passes without danger of death in passing there.’ Elizabeth’s one was much stronger, with stone piers and wooden decking. However, the inscription that accompanied it, proclaiming ‘God Save the Queen’ was obliterated by Cromwell’s Parliamentarian troops during the civil war of 1642 to 1651. Elizabeth’s bridge survived until 1722, when it was rebuilt completely in stone. This remains in use today.

Bygone Era

This image is available to purchase and is part of our Bygone Era Stock Photos Collection.