History flash The bridge 12thC (repaired 16 and 18thC) was built to link (Market Place)-Saddler Street-Elvet by replacing a For

The bridge 12thC (repaired 16and 18thC) was built to link the Market Place viaSaddler Street by replacing a Ford linking Elvet Barony with the Durham peninsula. It has seven arches three on land and 2 hidden by buildings. The Bridge which once had buildings situated on it now has only one at the end recognised by its Dutch Gabled exterior.

Ghosts Gypsies and Pubs.

On the Saddler Street side of the Bridge (1632) stood a prison, where Jimmy Allan a well known Gypsy Piper and convicted thief was sentenced to spend his life. He spent 7 years locked up in a cell underneath the bridge until at 77 he died, only a few days before being pardoned. It is 'said' that if you stand on the bridge above the cells you 'may' hear the sound of Jimmy’s ghost playing his Northumbrian pipes. Under the bridge now stands a Pub called Jimmy Allan’s!

Old Elvet

It is likely that this area was the first ‘cultivated-inhabited’ site in Durham City around 200 years before the arrival of Cuthbert. See Durham History

In the 12thC after the building of Elvet Bridge, growth and prosperity in the area was enhanced when the then Bishop granted permission for the establishment of 40 Merchant's houses in what what became Old Elvet.