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River Brue’s Historic Bridges By David Jury The Brue’s Historic Bridges

In his book "Bridges of Britain" Geoffrey Wright writes:

"Most bridges are fascinating, many are beautiful, particularly those spanning in naturally attractive settings. The graceful curves and rhythms of arches, the texture of stone, the cold hardness of iron, the stark simplicity of iron, form constant contrasts with the living fluidity of the water which flows beneath."

I cannot add anything to that – it is exactly what I see and feel when walking the rivers of and discover such a bridge.

From source to sea there are 58 bridges that span the , they range from the simple plank bridge to the enormity of the structures that carry the . This article will look at the history behind some of those bridges.

From the river’s source the first bridge of note is Church Bridge in South , with it’s downstream arch straddling the river between two buildings.

Figure 1 - Church Bridge South Brewham

The existing bridge is circa 18th century but there was a bridge recorded here in 1258. Reaching , we find Church Bridge described by John Leland in 1525 as the " Est Bridge of 3 Archys of Stone", so not dissimilar to what we have today, but in 1757 the bridge was much narrower “barely wide enough for a carriage” and was widened on the east side sometime in the early part of the 19th century.

Figure 2 - Church Bridge Bruton

Close by we find that wonderful medieval Bow Bridge or Bridge constructed in the 15th century with its graceful slightly pointed chamfered arch.

Figure 3 - Bow Bridge Bruton On the west side of Bruton we have a much younger structure, Legg’s Bridge built in 1930 and is an early example of a single wide span arch reinforced concrete bridge. It was built by Edward Stead, County Surveyor and was one of many such structures built by Stead in Somerset. The original bridge was noted in the early 18th century as being of 3 arches.

Figure 4 - Legg's Bridge Bruton

At and Cole Farm the river flows beneath the viaducts of the Victorian railways built in the 1860’s

Figure 5 - Cole Viaduct before arriving at probably the oldest existing bridge on the river, Wyke Champflower Bridge, constructed sometime in the 15th century with two pointed arches with double arch rings built of very rough masonry and a massive cutwater on the upstream side and a buttress downstream. It’s a wonderful and important bridge noted by it’s status. In the reign of Charles II it was noted in the Quarter Session Records as being in a great decay - “On information that an ancient common bridge in Weeke Champflower near Brewton on the highroad from Weymouth to is in great decay ; the Court desires Peter, , Maurice, Viscount Fitzhardinge, and Robert Hunt, Thomas Wyndham, George Horner, Richard Crosse, Henry Bull, Esquires, and Thomas Holt, D.D., justices, to view the bridge before next Sessions, enquire who ought to repair it, and, if it be a county bridge, ascertain the cost of repairing it.”

Figure 6 - Wyke Champflower Bridge

Next we find Bridge constructed in 1823 to replace a bridge located downstream and known as Woodmill Bridge with a ”great stone arch” this bridge fell in 1696 and was replaced with one of two arches. The existing bridge is a single arch.

Figure 7 - Ansford Bridge

Bridgefoot Bridge which carries the Fosseway over the Brue was built in 1820 at a cost of £248 to replace the Fosse bridge which was a little way downstream and demolished around the same time. Currently the downstream side is as the original single segmental arch with a 25 ft. span.

Figure 8 - Bridgefoot Bridge At the Quarter Sessions held in 1632 it was reported that "the two Comon bridges lyinge over the river at West Lidford are now become founderous and are like to be further Decayed without some speedy Course bee forthwith taken to repair them" - here, at West lydford, we have a bridge of true beauty, mainly due to the workmanship of one, Richard Carver, a stonemason who restored the bridge in 1846 by rebuilding the abutments and four cutwaters, repaired the arches, and built blue lias parapets with five segmented floodwater arches.

Figure 9 - West Lydford Bridge

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The River Brue’s Historic Bridges – Part 2

In Part 2 I will be looking at one of my favourite sections of the river from West Lydford to .

From Lydford the river winds its way through apple orchards to reach Tootal Bridge.

Figure 10 - Tootal Bridge

The existing structure is early 18th century and is built of lias stone with three semi-circular arches, a solid parapet which is pointed in the centre and curved end returns. Unusually it has two rows of voussoirs to the arches. On the upstream side there are two cutwaters designed to take the water around the bridge and thus protect the foundations. On the top of one of these cutwaters rests a flat stone in which a square hole is sunk. It is said that it once held a cross. Records show that there was a bridge of a single arch in this location in the 12th century and due to its imminent collapse was completely rebuilt in 1719.

This section of the river is erroneously shown on the Ordnance Survey maps as Dunstan’s Dyke which according to John Moreland’s article “The Brue at Glastonbury” was created some 40 years earlier by diverting Southwood Brook to provide the water source for a mill leat which provided power for Mill. The erroneously named Dunstan’s Dyke section of the River Brue was a diversion of the river created in the 13th century to provide more water power for Baltonsborough Mill. The original course of the river from Tootle Bridge is now called Cunlease Rhyne which rejoins the river just below Baltonborough Flights. From Baltonsborogh Flights the river itself travels west and then north west to Wallyer’s Bridge at Baltonsborough.

Figure 11 - Baltonsborough Flights

There was a bridge of two arches here in 1503 which carried a road which linked the Glastonbury manors of East Pennard and Butleigh. Wallyer’s Bridge was known as Baltonsborough Bridge in 1686 and as Wallgate bridge in the 18th century and was rebuilt in 1723 and again in 1799. The existing structure, built in 1972, is a single arch built of stone with a concrete deck and a metal railed parapet.

Figure 12 - Wallyer's Bridge From Wallyer’s Bridge the river flows in generally the same direction to Butt Moor Bridge and on through Kennard Moor and South Moor to Cow Bridge, just south of Glastonbury. Cow Bridge is worth a look if passing, it was built around 1930 and is an early example of a concrete reinforced structure.

Figure 13 - Cow Bridge

From Cow bridge the river flows in a westerly direction along a straight channel to Clyce Hole or Prior’s Weir.

Figure 14 - Clyce Hole This straight channel was constructed circa 12th century to provide the flow for the Glastonbury Mill that starts at Clyce Hole. From here the river continues to flow in a westerly direction to Pomparles Bridge (Bridge of Perils) which carries the A39.

Figure 15 - Pomparles Bridge

The existing Pomparles Bridge was built in 1912 and is reinforced concrete arch bridge designed by Edward Stead, County Surveyor of . References to the bridge occur as early as the 13th century. Leyland described it as a " Bridge of stone of 4 arches communely caullid Pontperlus, wher men fable the Arthur cast in his Swerd." Phelps in his gives an illustration of the bridge which existed before the rebuilding in 1826. From this it appears that the bridge had 2 arches, one semicircular in shape, the other a pointed arch, possibly built in the 15th century. During excavations for a new bridge in 1912, the remains of second round arch were found to the South. It was regarded as C12 work.

The old bridge, the predecessor of the medieval stone bridge, was referred to in documents of 1163, but may have been pre-Conquest in origin. The excavations which located the pre-Conquest causeway north of Street also encountered heavy oak timbers which might be part of the structure of this bridge. However, a 10th century charter appears to refer to a stone bridge carrying this road.

Figure 16 - Old sketch of Pomparles Bridge

From Pomparles Bridge the river changes direction to a generally northern flow and after a short distance the river flows into an engineered channel which changed the course of the original river flow. The new channel was probably constructed circa 12th century. The river passes beneath Cradle Bridge, previously known as Madeload Bridge, which carries Porchestall Drove

Figure 17 - Cradle Bridge and then beneath a disused railway bridge which originally carried the Somerset & Joint Railway, Highbridge to Glastonbury line. This is also the location where the disused Glastonbury Aqueduct crossed the river. It continues to flow northerly to Cold Harbour Bridge where it joins with the mouth of the Glastonbury Mill Stream.

Figure 18 - Cold harbour Bridge

The Historic Bridges of the River Brue – Part 3

The final part of my journey along the river Brue takes us from Cold Harbour, to the west of Glastonbury, to the sea at Burnham. The bridge at Cold Harbour is a modern concrete beam bridge carrying the B3151 Road from Glastonbury. Traditionally, the occurrence of “Cold Harbour” in a place-name is supposed to indicate a Roman settlement and there has probably been a crossing here since that time. Records show that pedestrians crossed here before the dissolution with the use of iron chains, which were later replaced by, first a wooden bridge and then in the late 18th century by a stone arched bridge.

Figure 19 - Stileway Bridge

From Cold Harbour the river flows in a westerly direction via a canalised channel passing beneath a delightful 19th century stone arch bridge at Stileway before reaching Meare. On the south side of the Brue at Meare is the Abbot’s Fish House, built in the 14th century, it is the only surviving monastic fish house in the , and was used by the Abbot’s chief fisherman to salt and prepare fish for . The fish were taken from , a large lake, now drained, which was described by Leland as “in circuite five myles and one myle and a half brode”. The fish in this lake would have been abundant and would have included pike, tench, roach and eels . It was also used to keep large flocks of Swans and was frequented by heron, geese, ducks and other wild fowl, thus providing a great source of food for the monastery.

Figure 20 - Abbot's Fish House

To the west of the fish house is the 14th century Meare Manor Farm House which was once the Abbot’s Summer House. The river passes to the north of the farm house beneath an unexpected bridge of elegance, probably constructed in the 18th century, this stone arched bridge with buttressed abutments and flood arches, provides access for the farm to the pastures on the north side of the river.

Figure 21 - Meare Manor Farm Bridge After being joined by the waters of the , and the Redlake and Whitelake rivers, the Brue flows beneath Bridge, a modern concrete beam structure.

Figure 22 - Westhay Bridge

A bridge was first recorded here in 1558 and was also called Cowe bridge. In the late 18th century a stone arched bridge was constructed to carry a public road out into , this bridge was rebuilt in 1829 when the road was turnpiked and again at the turn of the 20th century.

Figure 23 - North Drain Pumping Station From Westhay the river continues in a straight canalised channel for approximately 3 miles where it is joined by the waters of the North Drain constructed as part of the 1801 Brue Drainage Act, the North Drain Pumping Station at this location was constructed in 1959 when gravitational drainage had failed.

Further downstream on the Burtle to Mark road we find a very early 18th century single arch stone bridge, simply called River Bridge. This was constructed in 1812 at a cost of £410 by order of the Commissioners appointed under the Brue Drainage Act. This bridge replaced an earlier wooden bridge built in 1784 which replaced a ford described as "long, deep and dangerous" in Collinson’s History of Somerset.

Figure 24 - River Bridge

The bridge at one time bore an inscription "In memory of Albert E. Watts who was killed on this bridge Nov. 18th 1898 aged 33 years. Left a wife and 5 children. On Friday evening last, a person named Watts was at the Black Bull Inn [Mark], and there had some altercation with a named Larder .. the disputants went outside to have it out .. at a later hour, the man Watts was found by the bridge there in an insensible condition .. lingered till 11 a.m. the following morning, when he expired .."

Continuing its westward journey the river passes its confluence with the Cripps River, once used by the and where the Highbridge to Glastonbury line of the Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway once crossed, it flows beneath Bason Bridge, where a bridge was recorded in the 16th century, before reaching the Hackness Sluice which also carries the Newbridge Drove.

The final part of the river’s journey takes it beneath the M5 motorway constructed in 1972 and then to the Brue Bridge at Highbridge. There was a bridge across the Brue at Highbridge in the 13th century and certainly by the 15th century it included doors as a defence against the tidal waters King Richard III is said to have written c.1483-5 to Thomas Tremayll that he was informed that "Highbridge in our county of Somerset which was a grete defense of the salt water and also a common highway to all our liege people passing by the same is nowe by the grete rage and tempest of the water and also for noone repayring thereof broken and fallen to grete decay soo that gret substance of the countrey thereabout as wele diverse our lordships and manors adjoyning to the same as the inheritance of diverse our subjectes be surflowed and likely to be fynally destroyed and desolate to ours and there grete hurt unlesse the said brigg be repaired"

Figure 25 - M5 Motorway Bridge

In 1710 the Court of Quarter Sessions ordered the Commissioners of Sewers to carry out repairs after it was reported that the bridge had "become very ruinous & in great decay & that by reason of the decayes & disrepaires thereof a Great Tract of Land in the said County lyeinge neere the said Bridge is in imminent danger of an Inundation from the Seas and very likely to be subiected to very much damage & spoile..." .

Collinson in his History of Somerset quotes Locke (a local surveyor) as saying "The river Brent [Brew] over which is the no less strong than famous Dam called Highbridge said to have been built in the reign of Henry the 8 and by means of Flood Hatches forced fast by the head of the tide hinders the salt water from flowing up the flat. On one side of this famous bridge the highest spring tide flows twenty three feet but on the other side the freshwater by having its progress stopt rises only about eight feet. This fifteen feet difference in the height of the water from the east to the west side of the bridge astonishes the traveller especially when he views ships of upwards of one hundred tons burthen riding within a few yards of the turnpike road with their keels nearly level with it and on the other side the river scarcely navigable in the summer for a canoe.”

In 1802, to improve the defences against the tidal waters, a new bridge and clyce were built across a new cut some 150 metres south of the then existing channel. The old channel was used as a tidal wharf for transportation of goods by river to Glastonbury, and in 1933 the Glastonbury Canal opened using this same tidal wharf entered by a tidal lock on the site of the old bridge.

Figure 26 - Highbridge Clyce

You can find images of a lot of bridges on my Somerset Rivers website, www.somersetrivers.org, and remember, the next time you are crossing one of these bridges, the history that lies beneath

References used in this article include the Somerset Historic Record, British History Online, and the Somerset Extensive Urban Survey - Glastonbury Archaeological Assessment.