History
A Roman fort and associated vicus (ancient name unknown) were located here.
Greta Bridge is mentioned in Charles Dickens's novel The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby as the site of Dotheboys School. Dickens mentions the "George and New Inn, Greta Bridge". This is thought to be a conflation of two coaching inns in or near Greta Bridge.
The link here is the publican "George Martin" who first of all ran the inn called the "George and Dragon" to the West of the River Greta, he then moved to the original "Morritt's Arms" built on the East bank of the River Greta as a coaching inn by the Morritt family of Rokeby,in approx 1756, and he renamed it "The George" as recorded by Dickens (maybe having left his "dragon" behind at the present Morritt Arms!) Later, Martin moved to be landlord of The New Inn a mile to the east of Greta Bridge and re named that "The George and New Inn". Source; Peter Gilbertson of The Coach House, Greta Bridge.
The famous painting Rokeby Venus by Diego Velázquez was originally housed at Rokeby Hall, near Greta Bridge.
1 mile north is Mortham Tower, a fortified manor house dating from the 14th century, with a 15th century tower.
Read more about this topic: Greta Bridge
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“Postmodernism is, almost by definition, a transitional cusp of social, cultural, economic and ideological history when modernism’s high-minded principles and preoccupations have ceased to function, but before they have been replaced with a totally new system of values. It represents a moment of suspension before the batteries are recharged for the new millennium, an acknowledgment that preceding the future is a strange and hybrid interregnum that might be called the last gasp of the past.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. Sunday Times: Books (London, April 21, 1991)