Footbridge in Belper River Gardens built by Andrew Handyside in 1907.

The Derby firm Andrew Handyside who made Friar Gate bridge in Derby also made many hundreds of other bridges of many different sizes around the world such as this footbridge located in the River Gardens at Belper, Derbyshire, UK.
Next time you visit Belper River Gardens have a look at this bridge, its located near the car park area.

This footbridge was supplied by Andrew Handyside and Company Ltd in 1907 at a cost of £339. It was installed when a refreshments centre pavilion was built on the triangle of land at the southern end of the river gardens. You can clearly see this triangle of land using my map link below.

As you can see by my photographs (May 2011) this bridge is in a very poor state at the moment and in need of some serious restoration work. Belper River Gardens has recently been revamped and is looking nice so shame this bridge has been left. I hope its going to get restored.

Updates :
In 2012 I applied to English Heritage to get this bridge listed but they decided its not worth saving.
8th March 2014 - I have just been to see this bridge today and its still standing, surrounded by metal fencing.Its only a matter of time before its rusted away and lost forever.

Even though this is "just a footbridge" you can see that Handyside has embellished the side panels with some decorative ironwork. See my 4th photograph.


Photographs of the bridge at Belper River Gardens:

Wide view showing the location of the bridge below East Mill


Photograph showing four of the bridge sections


The South end of the bridge.


A side view showing some of the decorative ironwork


A bridge in need of some TLC.



This is a photograph of how the footbridge looked in 1908, As you can see its was an attractive looking footbridge. A pitty its got into the state its in today in 2011.

I would like to thank Adrian Farmer for this old photograph.



Map Location:
View my Andrew Handyside World Map to see the exact location of this bridge on the world map.
My world map is the result of hundreds of hours of research into the company, plotting out each item as I find it.

Google Streetview has captured this bridge HERE.

Can you help find more Handyside stuff ?
If anyone out there knows of any other bridges around the world bearing the Handyside badge that I have not mentioned yet then please get in touch with details, location, photographs etc.

Thanks
Andy