Boroughbridge &
Aldborough
Erected in 1875 in Memory of Andrew Sherlock Lawson of Aldborough Manor
Boroughbridge got its name from its relative location to the Roman settlement of Aldborough. The Roman road (Dere Street) heading north from York crossed the River Ure to the north of Aldborough, but at some point the road was diverted to cross the river at Boroughbridge.
Boroughbridge was first mentioned in 1155, in the Latin form pontem de Burgo, it was then known in English as Burghbrig (the bridge near Burgh or Aldborough). A new town grew around the bridge, and the old town became known as “Ald-Borough”
Aldborough is about a mile out of Boroughbridge, and was the original crossing point over the River Ure, until the road was diverted. In Aldborough there is a English Heritage Site, which has what remains of the Roman settlement. It was the capital of the Romanised Brigantes, the largest tribe in Britain at the time.
A Roman Mosaic found in Aldborough
We parked the car in Back Lane car park, then headed into the town , just outside the car park is the Town Council offices, which has a little tourist information centre there, we called in to see what we could find out about the area. We spoke to the lady there, where she advised us to take a look at the Roman site in Aldborough, to my surprise Susie asked if it was walkable? To which the lady said yes it was only a mile down the road. We thanked the lady and left the office, and had a walk around the town, we then headed along York Road, then onto Aldborough Road towards Aldborough. Aldborough is a lovely village with charming cottages and quite a large village green. When you get to the fork in the road, take the right hand fork which leads towards the green, follow the road round to the right past the green into Front Street, and the Roman site is on the right a little way up the hill.
The museum at the site has some wonderful Roman artefacts that have been unearthed on the site. After a leisurely wonder around the site we left and headed back down Front Street, then over the green and into Low Road. We headed along Low Road back towards Boroughbridge, when came across the Ship Inn, and as it was around lunch time we thought it would be rude not to, so headed in for a nice drink and a bite to eat. After being refuelled we headed back to Boroughbridge, and back to our car and headed home. We had a lovely day out, I would like to visit there again.
Some of the lovely flowers in the beer garden of The Ship Inn.