Telford's Mythe Bridge at Bushley
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The Bridge. Until the 19th century access from Bushley and it's environs to Tewkesbury, the other side of the River Severn, was only available via two ancient ferry crossings at Upper and Lower Lode. One took travellers to Forthampton Court and the other to Pull Court in Bushley and then onwards to T H E M Y T H E B R I D G E. Ledbury. The nearest bridge over the Severn was at Upton, which was the lowest point of the river that it was bridged at that time. But as advances in bridge design, and the increasing use of cast iron, Thomas Telford’s iron masterpiece over the River Severn were making larger spans more feasible a bridge crossing at Tewkesbury was considered to be viable and the idea was reviewed in 1816 and 1818. John Rennie, from London, was the first in Bushley. engineer to investigate a possible site for a new bridge and he selected a location halfway between the two ferry crossings to be connected to Tewkesbury via a causeway across the Ham. In 1823 the ‘Tewkesbury Severn Bridge and Turnpikes Trust' was set up by Act of Parliament and For the construction of the bridge local supporters raised £18,600, the two Tewkesbury MPs contributing £1,000 each. General Dowdeswell of Pull Court, who originally objected the project as he did not want his constituents in Tewkesbury (when he was MP) being able to access his home and bother him, sold his ferry crossing at Upper Lode for £1,650, contributing £500. The work was commenced in June and the Engineer commisioned for the work was George Moneypenny who selected a crossing site at the Mythe Hill, where the bridge is today. The Trustees quickly lost faith in Moneypenny suspecting that the foundations for the three span iron bridge, which had two piers located in the river bed, were inadequate. In December 1823 Thomas Telford, who at the time was directing the construction of the suspension bridge over the Menai Straits, was appointed. Telford agreed with the proposed site and within three months produced a design for a 170 foot (52m) single span iron bridge, a development of the bridge designs that he had previously used at Craigellachie (1812) and Betws-y-Coed (1815). A new embankment across the river meadows to the west would connect the bridge to the existing turnpike in Bushley, obviating the need for a causeway across the Ham. Despite Telford's assertion that his single span bridge would not exceed the cost of Moneypenny's design, the costs escalated probably due to Telford having to use some of the original engineers work. In 1825 a further£16,000 was required making another Act of Parliament necessary which could have delayed the completion of the bridge. Fortunately a resident at the Mythe, Thomas Taylor Esq. advanced the whole amount on the promise of being reimbursed prior to the original subscribers. Unfortunately, when completed, the bridge tolls did not prove adequate to pay even the interest and the other Turnpike Trusts refused to subsidise the bridge by amalgamating with it. In 1850 the arrears had to be written off and the interest rate was reduced to enable the Trustees to begin to repay the second loan. In 1891 the tolls were removed and the administration of the bridge was transferred to Gloucestershire and Worcestershire County Councils. The final cost of Telford's bridge with the associated road works was £35,000. Of this £5,500 was spent on procuring the Act of Parliament; the ironwork, cast by William Hazl;edine of Shropshire, cost£4,540; the original engineer Moneypenny received £750, and Telford only £250! The bridge design consists of six main perforated cast iron ribs: made up of eight 23 foot (7m) Telford’s major works. segments, diagonally braced together which support a matrix of x' shaped cast iron spandrel Shrewsbury. Ellesmere (Llangollen), Caledonian, Shropshire Union Canals struts which carry the cast iron flanged plates of the roadway. The arch rises 17feet (5.2m), one Pont Cysylite Aqueduct (1805) tenth of the span and was constructed from “best Shropshire iron commonly called no. 2”. Both London to Holyhead Road (A5) (1815) ends of the cast iron structure are set in masonry abutments which are solid to three feet (1 m) Menai Straits Suspension Bridge (1826) above the springing point of the arch and then perforated with six gothic style open arches. The St. Katherine's Dock, London. design of the abutments not only complemented the ironwork visually but also eases the flow of the river when in flood under the bridge. The toll house (now a private residence) and kiosk (in Telford’s bridges over the River Severn. derelict condition), also designed by Telford, are still in place on the Tewkesbury side of the Montford Bridge, Shropshire (1792) bridge. Buildwas Bridge, Shropshire (1796. replaced 1905) Bridgenorth Bridge, Shropshire (1810) The roadway was reinforced in 1923 and in 1992 the bridge underwent major repairs, including Bewdley Bridge, Worcestershire (1801) resin reinforcement of the structure and a reduction of the roadway to single file traffic. A weight Holt Bridge, Worcestershire (1828) restriction of 17 tons was also applied to the bridge, which bearing in mind that it was designed Mythe Bridge, Gloucestershire (1826) for horses, carts and pedestrians only confirms the brilliance of Telford as an engineer. Over Bridge, Gloucester (1831) Telford himself wrote that he considered it “the handsomist bridge which has been built under my References. direction”. Despite the excessive weight of 20th century traffic and decades of inadequate Thomas Telford. L.T.C. Holt, The History Press, 2007 maintenance, Telford's bridge is still a magnificent example of early cast iron engineering and Tewkesbury. Anthea Jones, Phillimore, 2003 the beauty of it's design can be best appreciated by viewing it from a distance on the footpath Bushley Almanac 1866. 1892, 1893. alongside the river. The Engineer. Thomas Telford, the son of a shepherd, was born on the 9th August 1757, in the parish of Westerkirk in Scotland. His father died when Thomas was four months old and at 14 he was apprenticed to a local stonemason before moving to London at 24 years old. There he worked on the construction of Somerset House and came to the attention of William Pulteney, the wealthy MP for Shrewsbury. In 1787 he was appointed the Shropshire County Surveyor of Public Works and set about a radical improvement of roads and bridges, devising anew form of chipped road surface. Although nick-named by Southey the “Collosus of Roads” it was canal construction that predominated Telford's life's work. His philosophy was build on a grand scale and use his engineering skills to take a direct approach to overcome natural obstacles, such as contours and wide rivers, rather than to go around them as done by his predecessors. Also he was mindful of the well being of his construction workers and the fatality rates on his projects, most of which were complex and years in the making, was remarkably low for the standards of the time. When he was born there was no civil engineering profession, but at the time of his death aged 77, on the 2nd September 1834, it was well established and Telford had been the founder and first president of the Institution of Civil Engineers. In an age before railways his work rate and extent of his travelling was prodigious, Telford paved the way for future great engineers such as Brunei, the Stephensons and others. He is buried in Westminster Abbey. Thomas Telford. The Mythe Bridge in 1893 from the north (before water works). The Mythe Bridge in 2010 Telford's drawing of the proposed Mythe Bridge. Telford's resident site engineers: Bridge: William McKenzie Embankment/Abutments: Hugh McKintosh Mythe Bridge OS grid reference SO 887337. The old Toll House. 12/2010/NN.