66 HERMITS, FORDS, AND BRIDGE-CHAPELS. 



"And v\e command you that ye take the aforesaid tolls and 

 customs for three years in the form aforesaid, and the pence 

 arising therefrom ye use for the reparation, &:c., of the bridge 

 aforesaid, and for no other purposes. Given at Reading the 28th 

 of December, 1347." 



From an inquisition held at Newark, October 26th, 1503, we 

 leain that a parcel of meadow land lying between the bridge and 

 Ingleby had been given in early days to the Priory of Repton, 

 on the tenure of supplying a priest to sing mass in the chapel on 

 Swarkeston Bridge ; but that there was then no such priest, nor 

 had one been appointed for the space of 20 years. The Church- 

 wardens of Stanton in 1552 reported, " We have a chapell edified 

 and buylded uppon Trent in y*" mydest of the greate streme 

 anexed to Swerston bregge the whiche had certayne stuffe belong- 

 yng to it, ij desks to knele in, a Table of wode, and certayne 

 barres of yron and glasse in the wyndos, whiche Mr. Edward 

 Beamont of Arleston hath taken away to his owne use, and we 

 saye that if the Chapell dekeye, the brydge vvyll not stonde."' — 

 " Churches of Derbyshire." iii., 471. 



The third bridge in Derbyshire, which seems to have had an 

 oratory and a hermitage connected therewith, is 



CROMFORD, 



although hitherto I have not been able to find any original cor- 

 roborative evidence. '" Tradition has it (writes Rev, Dr. Cox) 

 that this (the old chapel near Cromford Bridge) was an 

 oratory for the use of those who were about to cross the 

 ford of Cromfoid, and that fees were paid to the priest 

 in charge by the travellers." (" Churches of Derbyshire," ii., 

 573.) This bridge, apparently cooeval with those of Duffield 

 and Matlock, was constructed in the early half of the 14th 

 century, and all of them were widened on the north or upper 

 side about the beginning of the present century. At its south 

 western corner, near the cottage, are the remains of a small 

 rectangular building witli a Gothic doorway, clearly cooeval with 



