DRIVEN by an entrepreneurial attitude and funded by a generous community spirit, Hexham’s first ever bridge across the River Tyne symbolised much that was good about our 18th century selves.

It is 250 years to the day on Sunday that the foundation stone was laid with all due pomp and ceremony, said local historian Judy Lloyd.

Thousands turned out to raise a toast to the new venture, but before the description of the day, the story that led up to it ... “Well, first off, the roads, generally speaking, were absolutely rubbish in the 18th century,” she said.

“This was the era when turnpike roads started popping up, because the economy was booming and new industries were taking off all the time and they were having to transport their goods on roads that weren’t fit for purpose.”

A journey to Oxford made in what was probably the 1730s by a young Lancelot Allgood, later the key mover and shaker in a ‘we need a new road’ campaign, certainly demonstrates that.

During one of the many hours that Judy, founder member of the Hexham Heritage local history group, has spent beavering through the county archives at Woodhorn Museum, she came across a travel itinerary for this scion of landed gentry.

“It was among the Allgoods’ manuscripts and it’s little more than a list really,” she said. “It’s not in Lancelot’s handwriting – it’s probably Mr Denton’s, his right-hand man.

“He was obviously going to Oxford from his home in Nunwick and they mapped out how many miles he could travel each day and which inns he would be put up at – the journey took him eight days.”

Possibly on his way to take up his place at Oxford University’s Brasenose College, he duly trundled off through Ebchester, Northallerton, Wetherby, Doncaster, Nottingham, Leicester and Northampton.

The poor state of the roads in this area suddenly became an issue for king and country when Parliament had to mobilise the army to see off the Jacobite rebellions of 1715 and 1745.

“It was virtually impossible to move troops to where they needed them, and to Carlisle in particular,” said Judy.

“The Military Road (from Newcastle to Carlisle) was built as a result, but that was for strategic and not economic reasons.”

Maybe that planted the seed in the mind of Lancelot Allgood though. By 1748, he was MP for Northumberland and he hatched the plan for a new turnpike road that would link Hexham to Alnmouth on the north-east coast.

Alnmouth Road, corrupted over time into the Alemouth Road we now call it, began then, as it does today, at the bottom of Hallstile Bank.

Judy said: “There are documents showing how widespread the support was. All the big landowners put money in and many of the town’s people too.

“What you become aware of is the extent the community, from the top right down to the bottom, pulled together to get this road built, in a way we have completely lost today.

“It was the only way of doing it then, I suppose.”

The landowners had a huge vested interest in the project, of course. They had thousands of acres of arable land and the new turnpike road would allow them to load their grain on to ships at Alnmouth, thereby avoiding the exorbitant taxes levied in Newcastle.

The ‘corn road’ was indeed worth its weight in gold, but there was a problem.

Judy explained: “It was fine if your lands were north of the River Tyne, but at this point, the only means of crossing it from the south were by one of two ferries or a ford during low waters. They needed a bridge!

“There had been previous failed attempts to get the project off the ground, but the person who succeeded was my hero, Sir Walter Blackett. He galvanized everybody into action, as was his way.”

The late Tom Corfe, local historian and one-time Brain of Britain, produced a map of where he thought the ferries, ford and this first bridge were located.

Christened the Blackett-Gott Bridge – the latter, William Gott, the Yorkshire civil engineer who built it – Corfe deduced it rose off Tyne Green roughly halfway along the stretch of footpath that now runs parallel with Tynedale Golf Club.

The east boat ferry crossed to where the very picturesque Boatacres cottage still stands, within the grounds of The Hermitage, and the west boat ferry crossed at Warden.

Blackett himself invested £3,000 in the project, around £350,000 in today’s money, and many a social event was organised to encourage locals to likewise dig deeply.

The Newcastle Chronicle recorded the laying of the foundation stone that autumnal Sunday: “At noon, Sir Walter Blackett, baronet, went from the Abbey at Hexham to the river, accompanied by all the gentlemen and freeholders in the neighbourhood, a pair of colours being carried before them, drums beating, music playing, attended by the company of butchers with marrow bones and cleavers; then followed the company of free masons; and last came Sir Walter and all the gentlemen, and in this manner proceeded to the river, where he lay the first stone of the bridge, upon which was the inscription Laid October 15,1767 , in the presence of some thousands of spectators, to whom three hogsheads of ale were given upon Tyne Green; after which there was a grand entertainment given at the Abbey to the gentlemen and freeholders, who amounted to one hundred and seventy, and in the evening, several hogsheads of liquor were drunk by the populace, and the streets rung with, “success to the bridge of Hexham” and “long live Sir Walter Blackett!”

Alas, the story has a sting in the tail. It was three years before the bridge was completed, in 1770, and it had only been in use for a year when the great storm of 1771 swept Hexham’s bridge away, along with every other bridge over the Tyne, bar the one at Corbridge.

A short succession of replacements followed that were equally doomed, until the sculptural Tyne Bridge that is still the main entrance to our town today was built in the 1790s.

To mark the 250th anniversary of the town’s budding bridging ambitions, Hexham Heritage is hosting an exhibition in the Moot Hall that will reflect on the personalities and life in 18th century Hexham. It will run between 10.30am and 4pm on Sunday, and entry is free of charge.

Visitors will be able to pick up a crossword , for a nominal fee, and the clues will guide them round the town. One of the stopping off points will be the House of Correction and a second exhibition, this time specifically about the projects to span the Tyne.