YOU have probably driven or walked by it hundreds if not thousands of times.

But you have probably never noticed the sign for Wilderspool Bridge which marks its 60th birthday this week.

To mark the anniversary, we are taking a look at why the bridge was built in the first place.

The bridge replaced the controversial Wilderspool Level Crossing.

But remarkably, it took some 86 years from the first suggestion for 'immediate steps' to be taken to remove the crossing, which caused traffic woes in the town, for the work to finish.

The suggestions to remove the crossing seems to have been first made at a meeting of the town council in 1871 when a resolution to call for 'immediate steps to do away with the dangerous level crossing on Wilderspool Causeway' was passed.

In 1900 Warrington Corporation appointed a consulting civil engineer to advise on building a new bridge over the crossing. And while a wider bridge was built over the Mersey in 1915 (and opened by the then King), nothing was done about the level crossing.

The First World War then seems to have slowed progress before another borough surveyor, Mr AM Ker, was instructed to come up with a scheme in 1929.

Plans stalled again until 1937 when the council said work would cost £145,042, however the outbreak of the Second World War stopped progress.

At the end of the war though, the council was ready to carry out the work and lobbied Government hard to help pay the estimated £300,000 bill. Not just for construction but for the demolition of 47 homes in the area to make way for the bridge and roads. The cost also went to help the council build new homes in Orford to house displaced tenants.

Also demolished was The Grand Cinema, the Norton Arms Hotel, Ring o' Bells and six shops.

The Government eventually agreed to pay for 75 per cent of the work and construction started in August 1955 with the contract to carry out the works awarded to Harry Fairclough Limited.

It eventually finished in 1957 with the overall length of the scheme being 400 yards from Knutsford Road to St James's Church.

Alderman Edward Marshall and Mayor Cllr Harry Greenwood opened the bridge on May 16, 1957.

In August 1954 meanwhile, the council recorded that out of 16 hours on an August day when it carried out a census of traffic, the crossing was closed for three hours and 19 minutes.

Some 11,753 vehicles passed the bridge at the point in that 16 hour period. Today around 12,000 pass every hour at peak times.

As now, the crossing was a major cause of complaints for motorists as the A49 was one of the most important national trunk roads between the south of Chester and north to Preston and Wigan.

A brochure from the opening said: "In addition to the interference with the through traffic, situated as it was close to the centre of the town, it greatly interfered with internal communications, particularly with the traffic to the south of the Manchester Shop Canal."

  •  Thanks to Alan Williams, from Lymm Heritage Centre, for his help in putting this article together.