BOSTON BRIDGES LINCOLNSHIRE 1803-1807 HEW 643 TF329 437 Hospital Lane. Town Bridge N52o 59' 6.6" W0o 1' 7.2" .
Three virtually identical cast iron footbridges were built by John Rennie in Boston to cross the Drains in conjunction with his improvements to the Maud Foster Drain in his Fen drainage system. The surviving one at Hospital Lane is a single arch "formed by a pair of slender cast-iron ribs giving a 61 foot clear span with a 3 foot, 9 inch rise. The ribs, which bear the inscription ‘cast at Butterley 1811’, are also curved in plan. This gives the two bridges a markedly waisted appearance and illustrates the skill of the early iron founders. The webs of the ribs are pierced in the Vierendeel style and their upper chords are bowed to give a pronounced camber to the footways. Simple wrought iron balustrades terminate in plain square gritstone pillars above brick abutments.” (Civil Engineering Heritage: Eastern and Central England p 67) The town bridge for a century was one designed by Rennie which was replaced in 1913 with the present iron bridge designed by John W. Webster.
