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Question Re: Stamford Bridge - Does Anyone Know ... ?

sax
The river must have been too wide and too deep to wade with full kit. Otherwise the Anglo-Saxon Army would have skipped the berserk on the bridge by wading through the water.


Good point, and less than 300yards from the present bridge and the site of the medieval bridges in the village there is a natural ridge of rock in the river bed which, at the time would have been a fording point except in times of flooding ( the area is prone to flooding at times). There is some belief that the name of the place is derived from "Stone Ford Bridge".

A mile or so south of the village however, there is a roman road on both banks of the river which archaeologists have determined was linked by a bridge.

From Here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Stamford_Bridge

I wonder was the bridge where Harold's army crossed a wooden Saxon bridge built on the remains of a Roman bridge. Does the distance of this Roman bridge from the village and the proposed battle site help to explain why the Norse army were surprised by Harold's forces and why it was defended by such a small force until the rest of the Norse army got their act together.

The speed of Harold's advance on York is put down to the fact he marched on a good Roman road, Watling street, basically the current A1. Another Roman road, the current A166 led from York to Stamford Bridge and presumably crossed the river by the aforementioned bridge.

Question Re: Stamford Bridge - Does Anyone Know ... ?

if i remember right once the saxons were able to get over the bridge,they did it in a very quick way.forming up and suprising the vikings.it had to be a fairly wide and stable bridge at the time to allow thousands of saxons to get past it fast.