John Carr, the 18th Century North Riding Surveyor of Bridges, is one of my favourite chaps - largely because of a great pork pie story, but also because we still cross so many rivers using his bridges.

He gets a mention in Saturday's Echo Memories because between 1769 and 1790, he was working for the Earl of Darlington at Raby Castle. While there, he moonlighted in Staindrop, helping many villagers gentrify and extend their homes. He also built Malvern House, the gazebo in Gazebo House and much of West Terrace.

Here is how I told his story in 2007 when Croft Bridge had its status upgraded to a Grade I listed building because of its connection to Mr Carr.

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JOHN Carr was obsessed with neatness and symmetry. He was often away from his home in York for a week, surveying. So he would buy a large, circular meat pie and, using his compasses, he would divide it exactly into six portions - one for each day of his travels.

He was born in 1723 near Wakefield, into a family of masons. Showing a flair for problem-solving from an early age, he grew into a bridgemaster and a designer of some of the region's finest houses.

He could have gone to London and found fortune, but instead, shrewdly, he realised there was money in the provinces. When he died in 1807, he was reputedly worth £150,000 (multi-millions today).

He started as an architect in 1748 and began to make his name by building the grandstand on the Knavesmire racecourse, in York, followed by magnificent Palladian mansion of Harewood House, near Harrogate.

He became West Yorkshire's bridgemaster, building major crossings at Sheffield, Rotherham and Ferrybridge, before taking on North Yorkshire's bridges in 1772 for a salary of £100-a-year.

He built at least 30 bridges in the riding. One of his earliest was the delightful Greta Bridge, which is a delicate single span with ballustrading. On the other hand, one of his least successful is at Aysgarth because it is too tall for most people to see over to the beauty of the falls.

Perhaps the most appropriate is over the Swale in Richmond. It is deliberately solid and square, so it fits in with the powerful castle behind it.

Plus, in 1795, he widened Croft Bridge by 15ft (five metres) for £3,577.

It has seven Gothic arches which are planted immoveably across the Tees - and because his half of the bridge faces upstream it has had to withstand all the floods, spates, ice floes and debris that the river has flung at it for more than 200 years.

Beyond bridges, he built the church at Rokeby in Teesdale, Northallerton jail and Constable Burton Hall. He built Aske Hall, a grand mansion near Richmond, and Middleton Lodge, which dominates the countryside quite splendidly on the edge of Middleton Tyas.

Carr was twice Lord Mayor of York, but towards the end of his life was afflicted by a variety of ailments which slowed him down considerably.

He could never, though, turn down the opportunity to build bridges.

In 1799, he was asked to design a replacement for another ancient Skirlaw bridge, this one over the Tees at Yarm. However, the magistrates chose a cheaper iron version.

Carr tutted and retired to his bed where he was wracked with bowel, eye and ankle problems plus rheumatism.

But in 1806, the iron construction collapsed, and the 83-year-old invalid, veteran bridgemaster was called on for one last project. He died in 1807, with Yarm incomplete, although it was finished in line with his designs in 1810.

His reputation as one of the North's finest architects is currently on the rise, as is shown by the new importance attached to Croft Bridge.

In its official notice, the Department for Culture, Media and Sport says: "Croft is of exceptional interest as a monumental medieval multi-span bridge, which displays high quality architectural merit illustrated in its constructional and decorative detailing and the technical skill apparent in its large scale construction.

"The alterations by the renowned national architect and engineer John Carr enhance the significance of this bridge, all of which taken together mean that it fully merits inclusions in the statutory list in Grade I."