OLD BRIDGES

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CHAPTER XIV

OLD BRIDGES

The passing away of the old bridges is a deplorable feature of vanishing England.

Since the introduction of those terrible traction-engines, monstrous machines that

drag behind them a whole train of heavily laden trucks, few of these old structures

that have survived centuries of ordinary use are safe from destruction. The

immense weight of these road-trains are enough to break the back of any of the old-

fashioned bridges. Constantly notices have to be set up stating: "This bridge is only

sufficient to carry the ordinary traffic of the district, and traction-engines are not

allowed to proceed over it." Then comes an outcry from the proprietors of

locomotives demanding bridges suitable for their convenience. County councils and

district councils are worried by their importunities, and soon the venerable

structures are doomed, and an iron-girder bridge hideous in every particular

replaces one of the most beautiful features of our village.

When the Sonning bridges that span the Thames were threatened a few years ago,

English artists, such as Mr. Leslie and Mr. Holman-Hunt, strove manfully for their

defence. The latter wrote:--

"The nation, without doubt, is in serious danger of losing faith in the

testimony of our poets and painters to the exceptional beauty of the

land which has inspired them. The poets, from Chaucer to the last of

his true British successors, with one voice enlarge on the overflowing

sweetness of England, her hills and dales, her pastures with sweet

flowers, and the loveliness of her silver streams. It is the cherishing of

the wholesome enjoyments of daily life that has implanted in the sons

of England love of home, goodness of nature, and sweet

reasonableness, and has given strength to the thews and sinews of her

children, enabling them to defend her land, her principles, and her

prosperity. With regard to the three Sonning bridges, parts of them

have been already rebuilt with iron fittings in recent years, and no

disinterested reasonable person can see why they could not be easily

made sufficient to carry all existing traffic. If the bridges were to be

widened in the service of some disproportionate vehicles it is obvious

that the traffic such enlarged bridges are intended to carry would be put

forward as an argument for demolishing the exquisite old bridge over

the main river which is the glory of this exceptionally picturesque and

well-ordered village; and this is a matter of which even the most

utilitarian would soon see the evil in the diminished attraction of the

river not only to Englishmen, but to Colonials and Americans who

have across the sea read widely of its beauty. Remonstrances must look

ahead, and can only now be of avail in recognition of future further

danger. We are called upon to plead the cause for the whole of the

beauty-loving England, and of all river-loving people in particular."

Gallantly does the great painter express the views of artists, and such vandalism is

as obnoxious to antiquaries as it is to artists and lovers of the picturesque. Many of

these old bridges date from medieval times, and are relics of antiquity that can ill be

spared. Brick is a material as nearly imperishable as any that man can build with.

There is hardly any limit to the life of a brick or stone bridge, whereas an iron or

steel bridge requires constant supervision. The oldest iron bridge in this country--

at Coalbrookdale, in Shropshire--has failed after 123 years of life. It was worn out

by old age, whereas the Roman bridge at Rimini, and the medieval ones at St. Ives,

Bradford-on-Avon, and countless other places in this country and abroad, are in

daily use and are likely to remain serviceable for many years to come, unless these

ponderous trains break them down.

The interesting bridge which crosses the River Conway at Llanrwst was built in

1636 by Sir Richard Wynn, then the owner of Gwydir Castle, from the designs of

Inigo Jones. Like many others, it is being injured by traction-trains carrying

unlimited weights. Happily the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings

heard the plaint of the old bridge that groaned under its heavy burdens and cried

aloud for pity. The society listened to its pleading, and carried its petition to the

Carmarthen County Council, with excellent results. This enlightened Council

decided to protect the bridge and save it from further harm.

The building of bridges was anciently regarded as a charitable and religious act,

and guilds and brotherhoods existed for their maintenance and reparation. At

Maidenhead there was a notable bridge, for the sustenance of which the Guild of St.

Andrew and St. Mary Magdalene was established by Henry VI in 1452. An early

bridge existed here in the thirteenth century, a grant having been made in 1298 for

its repair. A bridge-master was one of the officials of the corporation, according to

the charter granted to the town by James II. The old bridge was built of wood and

supported by piles. No wonder that people were terrified at the thought of passing

over such structures in dark nights and stormy weather. There was often a bridge-

chapel, as on the old Caversham bridge, wherein they said their prayers, and

perhaps made their wills, before they ventured to cross.

Some towns owe their existence to the making of bridges. It was so at Maidenhead.

It was quite a small place, a cluster of cottages, but Camden tells us that after the

erection of the bridge the town began to have inns and to be so frequented as to

outvie its "neighbouring mother, Bray, a much more ancient place," where the

famous "Vicar" lived. The old bridge gave place in 1772 to a grand new one with

very graceful arches, which was designed by Sir Roland Taylor.

Abingdon, another of our Berkshire towns, has a famous bridge that dates back to

the fifteenth century, when it was erected by some good merchants of the town,

John Brett and John Huchyns and Geoffrey Barbour, with the aid of Sir Peter Besils

of Besselsleigh, who supplied the stone from his quarries. It is an extremely

graceful structure, well worthy of the skill of the medieval builders. It is some

hundreds of yards in length, spanning the Thames and meadows that are often

flooded, the main stream being spanned by six arches. Henry V is credited with its

construction, but he only graciously bestowed his royal licence. In fact these

merchants built two bridges, one called Burford Bridge and the other across the

ford at Culham. The name Burford has nothing to do with the beautiful old town

which we have already visited, but is a corruption of Borough-ford, the town ford at

Abingdon. Two poets have sung their praises, one in atrocious Latin and the other

in quaint, old-fashioned English. The first poet made a bad shot at the name of the

king, calling him Henry IV instead of Henry V, though it is a matter of little

importance, as neither monarch had anything to do with founding the structure. The

Latin poet sings, if we may call it singing:--

Henricus Quartus quarto fundaverat anno

Rex pontem Burford super undas atque Culham-ford.

The English poet fixes the date of the bridge, 4 Henry V (1416) and thus tells its

story:--

King Henry the fyft, in his fourthe yere

He hath i-founde for his folke a brige in Berkshire

For cartis with cariage may goo and come clere,

That many wynters afore were marred in the myre.

Now is Culham hithe57 i-come to an ende

And al the contre the better and no man the worse,

Few folke there were coude that way mende,

But they waged a cold or payed of ther purse;

An if it were a beggar had breed in his bagge,

He schulde be right soone i-bid to goo aboute;

And if the pore penyless the hireward would have,

A hood or a girdle and let him goo aboute.

Culham hithe hath caused many a curse

I' blyssed be our helpers we have a better waye,

Without any peny for cart and horse.

Another blyssed besiness is brigges to make

That there the pepul may not passe after great schowres,

Dole it is to draw a dead body out of a lake

That was fulled in a fount stoon and felow of owres.

The poet was grateful for the mercies conveyed to him by the bridge. "Fulled in a

fount stoon," of course, means "washed or baptized in a stone font." He reveals the

misery and danger of passing through a ford "after great showers," and the sad

deaths which befell adventurous passengers when the river was swollen by rains

and the ford well-nigh impassable. No wonder the builders of bridges earned the

gratitude of their fellows. Moreover, this Abingdon Bridge was free to all persons,

rich and poor alike, and no toll or pontage was demanded from those who would

cross it.

Within the memory of man there was a beautiful old bridge between Reading and

Caversham. It was built of brick, and had ten arches, some constructed of stone.

About the time of the Restoration some of these were ruinous, and obstructed the

passage by penning up the water above the bridge so that boats could not pass

without the use of a winch, and in the time of James II the barge-masters of Oxford

appealed to Courts of Exchequer, asserting that the charges of pontage exacted on

all barges passing under the bridge were unlawful, claiming exemption from all

tolls by reason of a charter granted to the citizens of Oxford by Richard II. They

won their case. This bridge is mentioned in the Close Rolls of the early years of

Edward I as a place where assizes were held. The bridge at Cromarsh and

Grandpont outside Oxford were frequently used for the same purpose. So narrow

was it that two vehicles could not pass. For the safety of the foot passenger little

angles were provided at intervals into which he could step in order to avoid being

run over by carts or coaches. The chapel on the bridge was a noted feature of the

bridge. It was very ancient. In 1239 Engelard de Cyngny was ordered to let

William, chaplain of the chapel of Caversham, have an oak out of Windsor Forest

with which to make shingles for the roofing of the chapel. Passengers made

offerings in the chapel to the priest in charge of it for the repair of the bridge and

the maintenance of the chapel and priest. It contained many relics of saints, which

at the Dissolution were eagerly seized by Dr. London, the King's Commissioner.

About the year 1870 the old bridge was pulled down and the present hideous iron-

girder erection substituted for it. It is extremely ugly, but is certainly more

convenient than the old narrow bridge, which required passengers to retire into the

angle to avoid the danger of being run over.

These bridges can tell many tales of battle and bloodshed. There was a great

skirmish on Caversham Bridge in the Civil War in a vain attempt on the part of the

Royalists to relieve the siege of Reading. When Wallingford was threatened in the

same period of the Great Rebellion, one part of the bridge was cut in order to

prevent the enemy riding into the town. And you can still detect the part that was

severed. There is a very interesting old bridge across the upper Thames between

Bampton and Faringdon. It is called Radcot Bridge; probably built in the thirteenth

century, with its three arches and a heavy buttress in the middle niched for a figure

of the Virgin, and a cross formerly stood in the centre. A "cut" has diverted the

course of the river to another channel, but the bridge remains, and on this bridge a

sharp skirmish took place between Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of

Dublin, and Duke of Ireland, a favourite of Richard II, upon whom the King

delighted to bestow titles and honours. The rebellious lords met the favourite's

forces at Radcot, where a fierce fight ensued. De Vere was taken in the rear, and

surrounded by the forces of the Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Derby, and

being hard pressed, he plunged into the icy river (it was on the 20th day of

December, 1387) with his armour on, and swimming down-stream with difficulty

saved his life. Of this exploit a poet sings:--

Here Oxford's hero, famous for his boar,

While clashing swords upon his target sound,

And showers of arrows from his breast rebound,

Prepared for worst of fates, undaunted stood,

And urged his heart into the rapid flood.

The waves in triumph bore him, and were proud

To sink beneath their honourable load.

Religious communities, monasteries and priories, often constructed bridges. There

is a very curious one at Croyland, probably erected by one of the abbots of the

famous abbey of Croyland or Crowland. This bridge is regarded as one of the

greatest curiosities in the kingdom. It is triangular in shape, and has been supposed

to be emblematical of the Trinity. The rivers Welland, Nene, and a drain called

Catwater flow under it. The ascent is very steep, so that carriages go under it. The

triangular bridge of Croyland is mentioned in a charter of King Edred about the

year 941, but the present bridge is probably not earlier than the fourteenth century.

However, there is a rude statue said to be that of King Ethelbald, and may have

been taken from the earlier structure and built into the present bridge. It is in a

sitting posture at the end of the south-west wall of the bridge. The figure has a

crown on the head, behind which are two wings, the arms bound together, round

the shoulders a kind of mantle, in the left hand a sceptre and in the right a globe.

The bridge consists of three piers, whence spring three pointed arches which unite

their groins in the centre. Croyland is an instance of a decayed town, the tide of its

prosperity having flowed elsewhere. Though nominally a market-town, it is only a

village, with little more than the ruins of its former splendour remaining, when the

great abbey attracted to it crowds of the nobles and gentry of England, and

employed vast numbers of labourers, masons, and craftsmen on the works of the

abbey and in the supply of its needs.

The Triangular Bridge Crowland

All over the country we find beautiful old bridges, though the opening years of the

present century, with the increase of heavy traction-engines, have seen many

disappear. At Coleshill, Warwickshire, there is a graceful old bridge leading to the

town with its six arches and massive cutwaters. Kent is a county of bridges,

picturesque medieval structures which have survived the lapse of time and the

storms and floods of centuries. You can find several of these that span the Medway

far from the busy railway lines and the great roads. There is a fine medieval

fifteenth-century bridge at Yalding across the Beult, long, fairly level, with deeply

embayed cutwaters of rough ragstone. Twyford Bridge belongs to the same period,

and Lodingford Bridge, with its two arches and single-buttressed cutwater, is very

picturesque. Teston Bridge across the Medway has five arches of carefully wrought

stonework and belongs to the fifteenth century, and East Farleigh is a fine example

of the same period with four ribbed and pointed arches and four bold cutwaters of

wrought stones, one of the best in the country. Aylesford Bridge is a very graceful

structure, though it has been altered by the insertion of a wide span arch in the

centre for the improvement of river navigation. Its existence has been long

threatened, and the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings has done its

utmost to save the bridge from destruction. Its efforts are at length crowned with

success, and the Kent County Council has decided that there are not sufficient

grounds to justify the demolition of the bridge and that it shall remain. The attack

upon this venerable structure will probably be renewed some day, and its friends

will watch over it carefully and be prepared to defend it again when the next

onslaught is made. It is certainly one of the most beautiful bridges in Kent. Little

known and seldom seen by the world, and unappreciated even by the antiquary or

the motorist, these Medway bridges continue their placid existence and proclaim

the enduring work of the English masons of nearly five centuries ago.

Many of our bridges are of great antiquity. The Eashing bridges over the Wey near

Godalming date from the time of King John and are of singular charm and beauty.

Like many others they have been threatened, the Rural District Council having

proposed to widen and strengthen them, and completely to alter their character and

picturesqueness. Happily the bridges were private property, and by the action of the

Old Guildford Society and the National Trust they have been placed under the

guardianship of the Trust, and are now secure from molestation.

Huntingdon Bridge

We give an illustration of the Crane Bridge, Salisbury, a small Gothic bridge near

the Church House, and seen in conjunction with that venerable building it forms a

very beautiful object. Another illustration shows the huge bridge at Huntingdon

spanning the Ouse with six arches. It is in good preservation, and has an arcade of

Early Gothic arches, and over it the coaches used to run along the great North

Road, the scene of the mythical ride of Dick Turpin, and doubtless the youthful feet

of Oliver Cromwell, who was born at Huntingdon, often traversed it. There is

another fine bridge at St. Neots with a watch-tower in the centre.

The little town of Bradford-on-Avon has managed to preserve almost more than

any other place in England the old features which are fast vanishing elsewhere. We

have already seen that most interesting untouched specimen of Saxon architecture

the little Saxon church, which we should like to think is the actual church built by

St. Aldhelm, but we are compelled to believe on the authority of experts that it is

not earlier than the tenth century. In all probability a church was built by St.

Aldhelm at Bradford, probably of wood, and was afterwards rebuilt in stone when

the land had rest and the raids of the Danes had ceased, and King Canute ruled and

encouraged the building of churches, and Bishops Dunstan and Æthelwold of

Winchester were specially prominent in the work. Bradford, too, has its noble

church, parts of which date back to Norman times; its famous fourteenth-century

barn at Barton Farm, which has a fifteenth-century porch and gatehouse; many fine

examples of the humbler specimens of domestic architecture; and the very

interesting Kingston House of the seventeenth century, built by one of the rich

clothiers of Bradford, when the little town (like Abingdon) "stondeth by clothing,"

and all the houses in the place were figuratively "built upon wool-packs." But we

are thinking of bridges, and Bradford has two, the earlier one being a little

footbridge by the abbey grange, now called Barton Farm. Miss Alice Dryden tells

the story of the town bridge in her Memorials of Old Wiltshire. It was originally

only wide enough for a string of packhorses to pass along it. The ribbed portions of

the southernmost arches and the piers for the chapel are early fourteenth century,

the other arches were built later. Bradford became so prosperous, and the stream of

traffic so much increased, and wains took the place of packhorses, that the narrow

bridge was not sufficient for it; so the good clothiers built in the time of James I a

second bridge alongside the first. Orders were issued in 1617 and 1621 for "the

repair of the very fair bridge consisting of many goodly arches of freestone," which

had fallen into decay. The cost of repairing it was estimated at 200 marks. There is

a building on the bridge corbelled out on a specially built pier of the bridge, the use

of which is not at first sight evident. Some people call it the watch-house, and it has

been used as a lock-up; but Miss Dryden tells us that it was a chapel, similar to

those which we have seen on many other medieval bridges. It belonged to the

Hospital of St. Margaret, which stood at the southern end of the bridge, where the

Great Western Railway crosses the road. This chapel retains little of its original

work, and was rebuilt when the bridge was widened in the time of James I.

Formerly there was a niche for a figure looking up the stream, but this has gone

with much else during the drastic restoration. That a bridge-chapel existed here is

proved by Aubrey, who mentions "the chapel for masse in the middest of the

bridge" at Bradford.

The Crane Bridge, Salisbury

Sometimes bridges owe their origin to curious circumstances. There was an old

bridge at Olney, Buckinghamshire, of which Cowper wrote when he sang:--

That with its wearisome but needful length

Bestrides the flood.

The present bridge that spans the Ouse with three arches and a causeway has taken

the place of the long bridge of Cowper's time. This long bridge was built in the

days of Queen Anne by two squires, Sir Robert Throckmorton of Weston

Underwood and William Lowndes of Astwood Manor. These two gentlemen were

sometimes prevented from paying visits to one another by floods, as they lived on

opposite sides of the Ouse. They accordingly built the long bridge in continuation

of an older one, of which only a small portion remains at the north end. Sir Robert

found the material and Mr. Lowndes the labour. This story reminds one of a certain

road in Berks and Bucks, the milestones along which record the distance between

Hatfield and Bath? Why Hatfield? It is not a place of great resort or an important

centre of population. But when we gather that a certain Marquis of Salisbury was

troubled with gout, and had frequently to resort to Bath for the "cure," and

constructed the road for his special convenience at his own expense, we begin to

understand the cause of the carving of Hatfield on the milestones.

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