The report of the Commissioners shows that the chapel was evidently an integral portion of one of the bridge piers, as was often the case, and was probably coeval with its first building. The chapel was demolished altogether when the spans over the river were rebuilt in the eighteenth century, and there is now no trace of it remaining, nor does there appear to be any drawing of the sacred place; though, of course, anyone familiar with other such Gothic buildings can easily picture for himself what this chapel would be like. For six centuries has the bridge been a popular highway for all classes of the community, and it is linked closely with at least two important epochs in English history. In the great Civil War of 1642–1646, the bridges at Nottingham, Swarkeston, and Burton were regarded as the keys to the North. In the winter of 1642–3, Col. Sir John Gell, the able commander of the Derbyshire regiment, heard that the Royalists were fortifying Swarkeston Bridge, so he marched thither, stormed the works and dismantled the same, after driving away the enemy with a loss of seven or eight killed and many wounded. The date of the “Battle of Swarsen bridge” is given in the register of All Saints’, Derby, as 5th January, 1642–3. The towns of Nottingham and Burton, along with their bridges, were taken and retaken several times during the war; but Derby was never in the hands of the Royalists, and this immunity Sir John Gell attributed to his having in his holding Swarkeston Bridge during the whole of the troublous period. At this bridge occurred also the climax of the latest invasion of England, _i.e._, that by the “Young Pretender” in 1745. By the time Charles Edward Stuart had reached Derby, he realised that his project was hopeless. His army had increased scarcely at all since he left Scotland, and his mountain warriors, who had marched all the way from their native Grampians, found, when they got to the end of the Pennine Chain, their way barred by the great plain of England. They never crossed the Trent, and although their advance guard reached Swarkeston Bridge, that was only a movement to kill time while the courageous Highlanders braced themselves to endure the humiliation of a retreat. The Prince had traversed half the length of England, only to find the people were too prosperous and contented to wish to disturb the ruling dynasty; and the King’s two armies, more powerful than his own, were rapidly approaching the invader’s troops. So the 7,000 clansmen, with their tartans and pipes, did not march over the bridge, and the people of Swarkeston were thus deprived of a fine spectacle, doubtless much to their relief. Since then the repose of the bridge has never been disturbed by wars or rumours of wars.