The bridge was built after 1400 to replace one built early in the 12th century for Ranulf Flambard, who was Bishop of Durham 1099–1128.[2] Flambard's bridge seems to have had five or six arches.[3] A record of a lawsuit in 1437 records that Flambard's bridge:
Until the replacement bridge was completed a ferry was substituted, the profit from which was shared between the Bishop of Durham and the Prior of Durham Cathedral Priory.[2]
The current bridge is of two shallow arches, each with several reinforcing ribs.[3] Their combined span is about 30 yards (27 m).[3] The early 16th-century antiquaryJohn Leland recorded that there were three arches.[3] A watercolour of Durham Cathedral painted by Thomas Girtin in 1799 shows a third arch, with a rounded shape[3] characteristic of Norman architecture. Buildings at the central Durham end of the bridge may conceal the third arch, which may be a surviving part of Flambard's original 12th-century bridge.[3]
Some sources indicate that both ends of the bridge were fortified by towers and gates, though others infer only a single gatehouse was built on the peninsula side of the river.[citation needed] The gateway and tower at the eastern end of the bridge were deemed an obstruction to traffic and demolished in 1760.[3] A flood destroyed two houses at the end of the bridge in 1771.[3] Early in the 19th century the bridge was widened on its upstream side.[3] It is now 27 feet (8.2 m) wide.[3] Of the reinforcing ribs under each arch, five belong to the 15th-century bridge and two to the 19th-century widening.[3]
In 1318, Robert Neville, the "Peacock of the North", murdered his cousin, the Bishop's Steward, Sir Richard Fitzmarmaduke, at Framwellgate Bridge.[citation needed]
Until the building of Milburngate Bridge in 1969, Framwellgate Bridge was the main traffic route from the west through the centre of Durham. Today, the bridge is pedestrianised.
