Tadcaster’s new bridge is five years old – and the town is planning a party

Believe it or not, the ‘new’ bridge in Tadcaster will be five years old next year and the people who live and work in the North Yorkshire town think that is definitely worth marking.

On the 20 February there is a Bridge Celebration Day, covid rules permitting, they will have all the usual activities including entertainment and a market, ending with one of their famous lantern parades in the evening.

Its partial collapse happened on the Tuesday night of December 29th in 2015 as the stone structure succumbed to a raging River Wharfe.

Onlookers watched in horror as large sections of the 18th century bridge slipped into the river.

Kirsty Poskitt is organising the Celebration Day and has been talking to YorkMix Radio:

“You know I have had to check the dates many times because it just feels crazy to say that that bridge is five years old next year.

“I’ve literally said, No, it can’t be! But it is.

“The collapse was SIX years ago!

“So we are planning to celebrate, because this time, between Christmas and New Year, is really difficult for people because there’s a lot of memories coming back of a time when the town was split in two.

“So we’re gonna have a bridge birthday party, I guess you could call it. We will do the usual market things. And we’ll have street performers and music and lots of different things.

The Lantern Festival will come back too at the end of the day, which is just amazing. We love doing that. It’s gorgeous!

Kirsty added:

“We really want the businesses to get involved again too. We want to do window displays and the businesses are fantastic at decorating their windows.

“We will aslo do Lantern making workshops leading up to the day and want people to get involved as early as possible.

If you still have a lantern they are able to use or want to get involved please drop a line to Tadcaster Barn on Facebook