Bewdley Bridge

Bewdley Bridge
Bewdley Bridge from Severnside North
Coordinates
Carries	Motor vehicles, B4190 road
Crosses	River Severn
Locale	Bewdley, Worcestershire
Heritage status	Grade I listed
Characteristics
Design	Arch bridge
Material	stone
Width	27 feet (8.2 m)
Longest span	60 feet (18 m)
Number of spans	3
Piers in water	2
Clearance below	18 feet (5.5 m)
History
Designer	Thomas Telford
Constructed by	John Simpson
Construction end	1798

Bewdley Bridge is a three-span masonry arch bridge over the River Severn at Bewdley, Worcestershire. The two side spans are each 52 feet (16 m), with the central span 60 feet (18 m). The central arch rises 18 feet (5.5 m). Smaller flood arches on the bank bridge the towpath. The bridge is 27 feet (8.2 m) wide.

History

There has been a bridge at this location since 1447, each being destroyed and replaced. Severe flooding in 1795 destroyed the previous bridge. That bridge comprised five pointed stone arches. A stone gatehouse on one pier had been replaced with a stone cottage by the time of a 1781 print. One of the arches had also been damaged by the Royalists in 1644 and rebuilt in timber.

Parts of a fifteenth-century bridge were rediscovered in 2004 during excavations for new flood defences.

Thomas Telford designed the current bridge, which was built in 1798 by Shrewsbury-based contractor John Simpson for £9,000. Its toll house was demolished in the 1960s.

See also

• Crossings of the River Severn

Further reading

• Cragg, R., Civil Engineering Heritage - Wales & West Central England, Thomas Telford Publishing, 2nd edn., 1997, ISBN 0-7277-2576-9
• Witts, C., A Century of Bridges, River Severn Publications, 2nd edn., 1998, ISBN 0-9532711-0-2

External links

• 1814 engraving of the bridge
• 1823 painting of the bridge