V. OUSE BRIDGE

There has been a bridge on this site since the 12th century and its history is intertwined with the Reformation and the persecution of Catholic in Elizabethan England. The Ouse Bridge was on the route to the Tyburn, an execution point on what is now the Knavesmire, where many Catholic priests and laity met their end. Consequently it became a significant route of pilgrimage to the execution site and one which Margaret Clitherow before her execution in 1586 (and later deification) would travel barefoot from her home on the Shambles, to pray for the souls of those executed. Margaret Clitherow was a Catholic convert who risked her life harbouring Catholic priests in her home, despite receiving a felony conviction in 1585. In 1586 Margaret’s home was searched and evidence found that she had been hiding Catholic priests was discovered. She was arrested but refused to plead when she was summoned to the York Assizes. Her refusal meant that she would be further sanctioned and indeed  was sentenced to be crushed alive. On Good Friday Margaret was taken from the prison which stood at the end of the bridge to the Ouse bridge toll booth, (only seven yards from the jail), where the sentence was carried out. Margaret was stripped naked and laid upon the floor of the toll booth, with a sharp stone under her back. A quantity of seven or eight hundred-weight stones were placed upon her which broke her ribs, causing them to burst through her skin. She was reported to have died after fifteen minutes. Her hand was removed at some point after her death and ultimately ended up in the Bar Convent, on Blossom Street, where it is still located. She was canonized in October, 1970.