Bridges

In the Hundred of Bradford on Avon, Wiltshire

The Town Bridge, Bradford on Avon is of nine arches, of which the two on the far (southern) side are pointed and date from the 13th or 14th centuries. A bridge of some sort was in existence here in 1200. Learn more about the Town Bridge

A little downstream is Barton Bridge, which is all medieval of about 1340, with four pointed arches and no parapets. It is not a packhorse bridge, despite what people have started calling it, possibly because it sounds picturesque. It is at least twice as wide as a real packhorse bridge and easily wide enough for a cart (or even a modern tractor!)

Learn more about Barton Bridge

Staverton Bridge

Staverton Bridge is the next bridge upstream from Bradford. Like the Town Bridge two medieval arches have been preserved (on the Holt side), the rest was rebuilt and then doubled in width, but still not wide enough for modern two-way traffic. Giving for the upkeep of bridges was considered a good deed and Drewse Carter of Bradford left 6s8d for Staverton Bridge in his will in 1559.

The Viaduct, carrying the Warminster Road over Midford Brook

Most spectacular of the road bridges of the Bradford Hundred area is the Viaduct which carries the Warmister Road (A36) across the valley of Midford Brook between Limpley Stoke and Monkton Combe in Somerset. It was built as part of the Black Dog Turnpike’s second route from Bath to Warminster and opened in 1834.
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The bridge over the River Frome at Iford is believed to have first been built in about 1400, but is much altered

Stokeford Bridge crosses the Avon between Winsley and Limpley Stoke and dates from the 18th century. Learn more

Parsonage Bridge at Broughton Gifford replaced an older one in 1642 and was widened later

The bridge over the Kennet & Avon Canal near the bottom of Winsley Hill is one of many built to the standard design of engineer John Rennie in about 1795. Others are at at Lady Down in Holt, at Widbrook on the Trowbridge Road, at the lock on Frome Road and at the Elbow, below Turleigh.

Footbridges

The Packhorse Bridge at Monkton, Broughton Gifford, built around 1725, is just wide enough to carry pack animals, single-file, and pedestrians over the Avon. It replaced an old wooden bridge

The footbridge, now called the McKeever Bridge, in Bradford, shortly after it was completed in 1962/3. Learn more

A stone bridge with iron reinforcement crosses a stream in a wood near Ford Farm, on a footpath from Bradford Leigh to South Wraxall

The bridge at Midford, on the border of Limpley Stoke with the parish of South Stoke in Somerset was in existence in about 1540 when John Leland recorded crossing it.

Find out more about bridges of all sorts in Bradford on Avon in the Museum’s booklet