OK, here are my offerings for this one.
Popped out at lunchtime to get some stamps. And lunch. My route took me over the old railway bridge into Stamford Bridge. So in this shot, you can see the railway bridge, Stamford Bridge bridge, and Stamford Bridge the town. My brother-in-law worked at the factory you can see in the distance for a bit, making plastic parts for Dyson vacuum cleaners.
This Stamford Bridge is the one where the battle occurred in 1066, not the one where Chelsea play.
King Harold and the Saxons were having a hard time - they were expecting an invasion from the Normans and had gone down to Sussex for it. Then they heard that a bunch of Scandinavians had just landed and burned Scarborough. While you and I would have shrugged that off (best thing for it), Harold was having none of it and marched everyone back to Yorkshire to see them off. Which should have been easy, because the Norsemen were caught napping, and had left their armour in their boats further down the river.
It almost didn't happen because a Viking stationed himself on the bridge (which was rather narrower in those days) and nobbled every Saxon who tried to cross. This went on for some time. It all ended well, though, when some enterprising Saxon sneaked up under the bridge and stabbed the Viking up through the bridge planks with a spear. The scene is depicted on the pub sign by the bridge. Makes my eyes water every time I go by... Harold and his mob beat off the Vikings and had to walk all the way back to Sussex, only to be defeated by the Normans as soon as they got there. C'est la vie, as we then had to learn to say...
Anyway, back in the present, I went back to work. But today is shopping day on the way home, so here's my outfit on the scenic route back from Sainsbury's, by the bridge in Strensall known as "Old Humpy".
Either this is because it's quite a steep hump-backed bridge over the Foss, or it's because it's just outside Strensall village and so couples wander romantically there on a summers evening, hand in hand among the willows and gracefully waving fields of wheat and...
...and this bridge was built in 1796, and this makes it older than any of the bridges in nearby York. Despite this, it's official name is Strensall New Bridge.
And so finally we come to Strensall's other bridge. As far as I know, this one doesn't have a name apart from Strensall Bridge.
The burnt-out building in the background used to be a tannery until a couple of years ago. It's been up for sale ever since. Rumour has it that the repeated fires there are attempts by the owners to claim some insurance money, since they can't flog the place.
I also cross Sheriff Hutton Bridge coming home that way - but it was raining and I reckon four bridges is enough to be going on with. One of them must satisfy Rich's inscrutable criteria?
