Nellie Carr introduced me to Kilgram Bridge.

I'd known about it for many years but none of my Dales journeys had taken me over it until, recently, Nellie celebrated her 95th birthday and I decided to give her my greetings personally at her new home, a bungalow in lower Wensleydale.

Nellie was born at Park House, on Malham Moor. She was married twice. Each marriage was long and happy. She was to have two silver wedding celebrations.

Until recently, Nellie's home was a farmhouse at Darley in Nidderdale, which she adorned with tapestries made by her restless fingers. She is now in the Bedale area.

The instructions I had been given meant that I found her home without difficulty, following a narrow, winding, leaf-fringed road that was unfamiliar and crossing the River Ure by Kilgram Bridge.

I chatted with Nellie and tasted some of her birthday cake - then returned to the bridge, keen to examine what is a very old structure, though I could not be sure whether or not I was looking at the original bridge of about 1100, or a replacement.

The present bridge has six arches, each arch having squared ribs. Virtually all the early stone bridges of the Dales were constructed on a ribbed understructure, a pattern that was in use for about 300 years.

The Devil undertook to build Kilgram bridge on the understanding that he could claim the first living creature to cross it. This story, with variations, is found in the folklore of many European lands. The best north-country example is at Kirkby Lonsdale, where the bridge spans the Lune.

At Kilgram, the Devil was cheated when a farmer's dog called Grim was commanded to swim the river. The farmer then whistled it back over the bridge.

Arthur Gaunt, a West Riding writer who collected legends as you or I might collect stamps or postcards, claimed that the Devil was thwarted when a single stone was removed from the structure. The bridge was never quite finished.

A good example of an early bridge with monastic associations is Kildwick, over the Aire. Building the bridge in 1305 cost the canons of Bolton Prior £21 12s 9d. Kildwick Bridge carried traffic on the A65 until the village was by-passed. The monastic work is evident on the western side.

Were the Cistercians of Jervaulx Abbey associated with the construction of Kilgram? The antiquary Leland, crossing it in later times, described it as "the great old bridge of stone on Ure caulld Kilgram Bridge". This was not just a bridge. It was an ancient monument.

When the monasteries were dissolved on the instructions of Henry VIII, there occurred what Arthur Raistrick called "a minor social revolution... the translation of thousands of tenant farmers into small freeholders."

Stone masons who had worked for the monasteries were now available, with their many able assistants, to replace old wooden structures with some made of stone. With an increase of trade in the 17th century, stout bridges were needed on roads leading to the markets.

The bridges of Upper Wharfedale would, if they could speak, have many fascinating tales to tell. Linton Bridge was rebuilt by public levy. The cost of re-building Burnsall in durable form was met in 1609 by Sir William Craven. He'd made his "brass" in London and spent some of it on his native valley.

When Barden Bridge was in urgent need of repair in 1659, no one could remember who should replace it. The cost, a swingeing £300, was met by the whole of the West Riding. The bridge was then swept away in the floods of 1673.

Three years later, when the present bridge was built, the cost was again met by the whole Riding. The bridge is graceful but lofty, giving the impression it is standing on tip-toe, well clear of the water.

Recently, at the head of North Ribblesdale, I paused when crossing the bridge over Cam Beck to read the (now faint) inscription indicating that this bridge was constructed at the cost of "the whole West Riding".

On the arches of old bridges you might sometimes see marks made by masons who were anxious that their distinctive work should not be forgotten. Unhappily, the marks mean little to us today except to recall the freelance masons who travelled wherever their special talents could be used.

Two Wharfedale bridges where mason's marks were inscribed in the 17th century are Linton and Barden.

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