AN ivy-clad house, a double-arched stone bridge over a rustic-looking river, and two young boys poking about at the water’s edge – this was Stockbridge a century or more ago. The bridge over the River Aire, carrying “a great and common high road leading between Lancashire and Yorkshire”, had been built in 1671 and widened in 1754.

This scene was to change drastically between 1928 and 1930, when this old bridge was replaced by its present sleeker, straighter successor made of ferro-concrete. The ivy-clad house disappeared about the same time.

The new bridge opened to traffic at 8.30 on the morning of September 4, 1930, after an informal ceremony when the landlord of the nearby Bridge Inn cut a tape. One of the first vehicles to cross was the same Riddlesden bus which in 1928 had been first across a temporary wooden bridge used during the rebuilding.