{"id":2579,"date":"2020-09-18T14:46:32","date_gmt":"2020-09-18T14:46:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/?page_id=2579"},"modified":"2022-05-20T06:34:09","modified_gmt":"2022-05-20T06:34:09","slug":"the-stone-bridge-1200-1795","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/built-environment\/lost-buildings\/the-stone-bridge-1200-1795\/","title":{"rendered":"The Stone Bridge 1200-1795"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Bridgwater Bridges Part 1: Stone Bridge\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/RClys3BwKKM?start=2&#038;feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Before the Stone Bridge: an Anglo-Saxon Bridge?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>It is difficult to say with any confidence when the very first bridge of Bridgwater was constructed, let alone a stone bridge. Although there long existed a fording point over the river at Combwich at low tide, a bridge would have been very desirable to help with east-west communication through Somerset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The earliest piece of evidence for a bridge in Bridgwater comes from the first element of the name, \u2018Bridg\u2019, first recorded in the Domesday Book of the 1086, Brugie (the second element, \u2018Walter\u2019, being added later). The opinion of historians is divided on the meaning of the &#8216;Bridg&#8217; element of the name Bridgwater. At face value it seems to just mean bridge. However, in the <em>Victoria County History for Somerset<\/em>, Dunning suggests that the name may derive from either the Norse word for quay or the Old English for gangplank, his assumption that the town grew from a quayside, rather thana&nbsp; river crossing. This can certainly be contested. For a start, we are very unlikely to find a Norse settlement name in the heartlands of Anglo-Saxon Wessex. Meanwhile, in Old English the name is much more likely to refer to bridge, rather than gangplank. In several early Latin documents relating to the town the name was often translated to \u2018Pons Walteri\u2019, Pons being the Latin word for bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Even if we settle on bridge meaning bridge in this instance, we are still not in the clear. Harrison\u2019s <em>Bridges of Medieval England<\/em> asserts that old English word &#8216;bridge&#8217; could mean as little as a mere man-made improvement to a natural river crossing, rather than anything more substantial, meaning we still might not expect a full permanent structure that would keep your feet dry when going over the Parrett. However, we may infer the existence of something substantial in Anglo-Saxon times. Given the settlement was just known as \u2018the Bridge\u2019 with no modifiers, it suggests it was important enough not to need any modifiers \u2013 when referring to the bridge in this area everyone knew exactly what was meant. Second, given the huge tidal range of the River Parrett, and the destructive force of the tidal boar, it is hard to imagine how any structure that bridged the Parrett in any meaningful way could not have been a piece of significant and costly engineering. Given what is known about the sophistication of the later Anglo-Saxon military and its infrastructure, we might imagine the first bridge of Bridgwater to have been a substantial undertaking to allow the easy movement of the army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Stone Bridge<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Mentions in later centuries suggest that a bridge was constructed by William Briwerre, the man who founded Bridgwater as a town and built the large castle in about the year 1200. While Briwerre was spending large sums building a mighty castle and employing skilled workers to construct it, it would seem likely that he would have a bridge built as part of the scheme. The bridge would be the last easy crossing point on the River Parrett before the sea (save for the fording point at Combwich, which could only be used at low tide) and also as far inland as sea traffic could go, meaning all goods would have to be unloaded at Bridgwater. Both road and river traffic could thence be charged for the privilege and Briwerre would have a lucrative earner. In the foundation charter for Bridgwater, Briwerre was granted the right of pontage, the levying of tolls on crossing a bridge. In the fifteenth century tolls were charged in loaded carts crossing the bridge, suggesting that unladed carts and pedestrians could pass free of charge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It is likely that Briwerre\u2019s bridge consisted of two large piers, known as \u2018cutwaters\u2019, set into the bottom of the riverbed, upon which a timber roadway spanned the gaps. The bridge required regular repairs, and the town possessed a common fund to pay for these, such was the bridge\u2019s importance. A condition of being a burgess of Bridwater, set down in the Ordinance of the Burgesses in the thirteenth century, was to ensure the upkeep of the bridge. By 1286 the structure was known as \u2018the Great Bridge\u2019, possibly to distinguish it from the bridges over the town ditch at the four gates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"326\" src=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Wooden-Bridge.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2580\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Wooden-Bridge.jpg 800w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Wooden-Bridge-300x122.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Wooden-Bridge-768x313.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><figcaption>A wooden bridge built upon stone piers, probably something akin to Briwerre\u2019s bridge.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The sixteenth-century antiquarian John Leland reported that locally the bridge was attributed as being started by Briwerre and completed by John Trivet. In 1395 Trivet gave three hundred merks (\u00a3200, a merk being 2\/3 of one pound) for improving the bridge and work was completed in 1400. This phase probably saw the addition of the three stone arches to the bridge, replacing the wooden roadway. Harrison&#8217;s study of medieval bridges suggests it was usual that thirteenth-century stone pier-and-timber-crossing bridges would be completed with stone arches in the fifteenth century.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"652\" height=\"508\" src=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/quay-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2581\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/quay-1.jpg 652w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/quay-1-300x234.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 652px) 100vw, 652px\" \/><figcaption>The stone bridge in the 1790s by John Chubb.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>Almost a hundred years after Trivett\u2019s modifications, in 1584-5 the bridge had fallen into a poor state of repair, due to the action of the tides, as well as the constant traffic of military vehicles (presumably carts laden with weapons and heavy cannons).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>There are mentions of at least <a href=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/built-environment\/lost-buildings\/buildings-on-the-south-east-side-of-the-bridge-c-1392-to-c-1830\/\">three tenements<\/a> on the bridge. Whether they were literally built onto the bridge or were just very close nearby is unclear, although the latter is much more likely. It was certainly not unusual to find houses, shops and even chapels built on the top of medieval bridges, although Bridgwater&#8217;s bridge was probably too narrow to support such structures. There is also a brief mention of a chapel on the bridge, served by the Franciscan Friars, although sadly we do not know more of this feature. Medieval bridge chapels can be seen at St Ives in Cambridgeshire and Rotherham, these ones being built atop and enlarged bridge pier. Again, the bridge in Bridgwater would probably have been too small for a chapel to have been built onto it, but one of the adjoining buildings built onto the end of the bridge may have served as a chapel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Bridge that Trivett paid to be completed was recorded by Chubb in the 1790s. It once bore the Trivett arms on the side, although these were not apparent on Chubb&#8217;s paintings. It is possible they were removed along with the whole central arch of the bridge during the Civil Wars in the 1640s. During the Storm of Bridgwater in 1645 there is a mention of there being a drawbridge at the bridge. This has usually been taken to suggest that one of the arches of the bridge had been removed and replaced with drawbridge. The arch was presumably then rebuilt after the wars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"726\" src=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bridge-1024x726.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2582\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bridge-1024x726.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bridge-300x213.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bridge-768x545.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/bridge.jpg 1080w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>Another view of the bridge by John Chubb. This shows how the top of the piers\/cutwaters also acted as handy refuges for pedestrians when carts crossed over, or, as in the case of this chap here, placed to just watch the world go by. <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>An <a href=\"https:\/\/archives.parliament.uk\/collections\/getrecord\/GB61_HL_PO_PU_1_1794_34G3n166\">Act of Parliament<\/a> was granted in 1794  for the town to build a new bridge and to extend the quays. The stone bridge was removed in 1795 when a new <a href=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/built-environment\/lost-buildings\/the-iron-bridge-1797-1883\/\">iron bridge<\/a> was constructed, the forerunner of the bridge of today (built in 1883). It proved difficult to remove the old stone cutwaters and they remained for a number of years as convenient moorings for ships undergoing repairs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"427\" src=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Medieval-Bridge-1024x427.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-2583\" srcset=\"https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Medieval-Bridge-1024x427.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Medieval-Bridge-300x125.jpg 300w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Medieval-Bridge-768x321.jpg 768w, https:\/\/bridgwaterheritage.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/Medieval-Bridge.jpg 1500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>The above sketch of the bridge was made in February 1794, not long before it was demolished. This picture was taken from Somerset Heritage Centre <a href=\"https:\/\/somerset-cat.swheritage.org.uk\/records\/D\/B\/bw\/2418\">D\/B\/bw\/2418<\/a> (part of the Bridgwater Borough Archives collection) \u2013 unfortunately the exact reference has not yet been found among the papers of the Bridgwater Borough Archives. This is accompanied by a survey of the bridge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Middle arch broad: 24ft<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Each side arch: 20ft 6; both 41ft<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Piers each: 8ft 9; both 17ft 6in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>River between the Buttresses: 82ft 6in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Road between the walls: 12ft<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Wall 1ft 10 in each; 3ft 8in, with road: 15ft 8in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Piers project each 6.9; 13ft 6in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Extent from north to south 29ft 2in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the top of the parapet (in the middle of the bridge) to the foot path: 3ft 9in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the footpath to the crown of the centre arch: 3ft 2in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the crown of the centre arch to low water: 22ft 10 1\/2 in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From low water to the bed of the river: 5ft 10 1\/2 in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Whole height from bed of the river to top of the wall: 35ft 8in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>From the quay (by the old crane) to low water: 16ft 9in<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\"\/>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">How do you build a medieval bridge?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>See this video of the construction of the Charles IV bridge in Prague:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Karl\u016fv most - Stavba pil\u00ed\u0159e a klenebn\u00edho pole ve 14. stolet\u00ed\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/nJgD6gyi0Wk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">References<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>Harrison, The Bridges of Medieval England, (2004)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Lawrence, History of Bridgwater, (2005)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Powell, Bridgwater in the Later Days, (1908)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Dilks, Bridgwater Borough Archives 1200-1377, (1933)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Leland, Itinerary, Chandler, J., ed. (1998)<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sprigge, Anglia Rediviva (1647)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Before the Stone Bridge: an Anglo-Saxon Bridge? It is difficult to say with any confidence when the very first bridge of Bridgwater was constructed, let alone a stone bridge. Although there long existed a fording point over the river at Combwich at low tide, a bridge would have been very desirable to help with east-west [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":179,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-2579","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Stone Bridge 1200-1795 - Bridgwater Heritage Group<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"History of Bridgwater&#039;s stone bridge, with speculations on its origin, the name Bridgwater and its ultimate fate. 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