Acts of Parliament Relating to Bridgwater

This page aims to include digitised scans of the various Acts of Parliament relating to Bridgwater made over the centuries, where available. This page will also include any related documents and ephemera that relate to the same. More Acts of Parliament will be added in the coming years.

Acts of Parliament were printed from the year 1483 in annual volumes. Often these volumes would be later split into parts so specific acts could be consulted more easily in different collections – if you only needed to reference a single local act you would not need the entire year’s volume.

Some of these Acts are fairly unremarkable, aside from the overall fact of their existence: the 1697 Act for maintaining the bridge and quay, for example, is a formulaic text simply empowering the town’s mayor and council to achieve that end. Others can contain very useful information relating specifically to Bridgwater: the 1779 Market House Act contains a very rich schedule detailing a row of buildings in St Mary Street that would be soon demolished.

1697 Act for the Inlarging, Repairing and Preserving the Bridge and Key

This is a very formulaic text, presumably copied from other instances where bridges and quays were in need of repair. It grants the Town Council the right to charge users of the bridge and quays a toll for use for 14 years. This gives power for the quays to be enlarged ‘not exceeding in length on each side 150 yards’. Both sides refers to ‘below the bridge’, which is slightly puzzling as East Quay was not really in existence at this point – the site being occupied by housing. Lawrence’s History of Bridgwater (pp.119-120) notes that the Act was soon acted on, with a lias stone foundation being made from stone found within the river, with more being quarried at Pilsbury. An oak frame was made of posts and planks and 16,000 bricks were supplied for the purpose. The little house on the bridge (presumably that on the south east side) was repaired at this time.

1794 Act for Building a New Bridge over the River Parrett

This Act resulted in the demolition of the old stone bridge, and the creation of a new iron bridge. The schedule at the back is very interesting, and seems to describe houses on the south east side of the bridge.

1856 Alteration of Bridgwater Market Day and Improvement Act Subscriptions

This piece of ephemera directly related to the following Act of Parliament for regulating the fairs and markets in the town. It indicates the burdensome cost needed to petition for a favourable Act. The exact significance of the persons involves is not entirely clear, although these will presumably all have looked to benefit in some way from the Act.

Transcription:

Alteration of Bridgwater Market Day and Improvement Act.
WE, the undersigned, hereby undertake to pay to Mr. TREVOR, the Clerk to the Market House Trustees, and Mr. CARSLAKE, the Town Clerk, the sums set opposite our respective names, as our subscriptions towards the costs and expenses of, and incident to, the application to Parliament for the said contemplated Act. Dated September 11th 1856.