Nantwich Bridge
Encyclopedia
River Weaver
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732...
in the town of Nantwich
Nantwich
Nantwich is a market town and civil parish in the Borough of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The town gives its name to the parliamentary constituency of Crewe and Nantwich...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England. The existing bridge replaces a 17th-century stone bridge; it dates from 1803 and is listed at grade II. An earlier timber bridge known as the Wich Bridge is first mentioned at the end of the 14th century; it is described as having a chapel and shops on it.
Nantwich lay on the main London–Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
road, an important transport route, and the bridge was heavily used for trade and military purposes from the medieval era until the 19th century.
Background
The earliest crossing of the River WeaverRiver Weaver
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732...
was via a ford
Ford (crossing)
A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...
to the south of the existing bridge, near the probable site of the Norman
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
castle
Nantwich Castle
Nantwich Castle was a Norman castle in Nantwich, Cheshire, England, built before 1180 to guard a ford across the River Weaver. The castle is first documented in 1288. It was last recorded in 1462, and was in ruins by 1485...
. A Roman
Roman Britain
Roman Britain was the part of the island of Great Britain controlled by the Roman Empire from AD 43 until ca. AD 410.The Romans referred to the imperial province as Britannia, which eventually comprised all of the island of Great Britain south of the fluid frontier with Caledonia...
trackway running at an angle to the course of Welsh Row was found during excavations by the existing bridge in 2007. A medieval wooden causeway running beneath the modern street was also uncovered. The town's location on the main London to Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
road meant that the crossing would have seen heavy use from the medieval era, including by soldiers en route to Wales and later Ireland. The opening of Telford
Thomas Telford
Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE was a Scottish civil engineer, architect and stonemason, and a noted road, bridge and canal builder.-Early career:...
's road from London to Holyhead
Holyhead
Holyhead is the largest town in the county of Anglesey in the North Wales. It is also a major port adjacent to the Irish Sea serving Ireland....
resulted in a decline in travel via this route from the 1830s.
Timber bridge
The first references to a bridge in the town occur in documents of 5 January 1398–9 and 1438–9. Known as the Wich Bridge (also Wiche or Wych), it was a timber structure on which stood St Ann's Chapel and four shops. Medieval chapels built on bridges also existed in other Cheshire towns, including CongletonCongleton
Congleton is a town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England, on the banks of the River Dane, to the west of the Macclesfield Canal and 21 miles south of Manchester. It has a population of 25,750.-History:The first settlements in...
and Stockport
Stockport
Stockport is a town in Greater Manchester, England. It lies on elevated ground southeast of Manchester city centre, at the point where the rivers Goyt and Tame join and create the River Mersey. Stockport is the largest settlement in the metropolitan borough of the same name...
. Few bridge chapels now survive in Britain, but a good example is the Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin
Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin, Wakefield
The Chantry Chapel of St Mary the Virgin, Wakefield is a chantry chapel in Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England and is designated a Grade I Listed building by English Heritage. It is located south of the city centre on the medieval bridge over the River Calder. It is the only survivor of four...
in Wakefield
Wakefield
Wakefield is the main settlement and administrative centre of the City of Wakefield, a metropolitan district of West Yorkshire, England. Located by the River Calder on the eastern edge of the Pennines, the urban area is and had a population of 76,886 in 2001....
, which dates from around 1350. A priest would have said prayers for the safety of travellers on payment of a fee. The fate of St Ann's Chapel is unknown, but it is not mentioned in records of chantry chapels
Chantry
Chantry is the English term for a fund established to pay for a priest to celebrate sung Masses for a specified purpose, generally for the soul of the deceased donor. Chantries were endowed with lands given by donors, the income from which maintained the chantry priest...
of 1545, and had presumably closed before that date.
The bridge was originally maintained and repaired by the town. Tolls were levied on goods passing through the town as pontage
Pontage
Pontage was a medieval toll levied for the building or repair of bridges.Pontage was similar in nature to murage and pavage ....
and pavage
Pavage
Pavage was a medieval toll for the maintenance or improvement of a road or street in England. The king by letters patent granted the right to collect it to an individual, or the corporation of a town, or to the "bailiffs and good men" of a neighbouring village....
for the maintenance of the bridge and road; in 1282, for example, a ½ d toll was levied per cartload, with goods destined for military use being exempt. The bridge appears to have survived the fire of 1583, which started nearby and destroyed much of the town to the east of the river. In 1622, William Webb writes:
In 1652, Wich Bridge was described as lying on "ye greatest & most frequented Road within this County", and it was designated a county bridge on 27 April 1652. This meant that the county was responsible for its maintenance, but also that Nantwich had to pay towards the maintenance of the other county bridges, a charge from which the town had previously been exempt.
Stone bridge of 1664
By 1663, a few years after the Restoration of the monarchy, the bridge was described by Roger Wilbraham as "in decay". Wilbraham was a prominent Nantwich resident who lived at Townsend House on Welsh Row; he later endowed the town's Widows' AlmshousesWidows' Almshouses, Nantwich
The Widows' Almshouses, also known as the Wilbraham or Wilbraham's Almshouses and as the Widows' Hospital, are former almshouses for six widows in Nantwich, Cheshire, England. They are located at numbers 26–30 on the north side of Welsh Row, on the junction with Second Wood Street...
. Anxious to avoid the town having to pay for its repair despite 12 years of contributing to other county bridges, Wilbraham and others successfully petitioned the Justices of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
for the construction of "a substantiall Bridge of Stone" at the county's expense.
Wilbraham commissioned local mason, Tim Adams, to build the bridge, starting in July 1663; it was complete by the beginning of July of the following year. The county contributed £90 towards its cost, together with 20 marks (£13 6s 8d) to pave the bridge and the road on either side. Wilbraham writes that "My little boy, a Twin of 2 years old, was the first corpse that was carried over the new Bridge the beging of July 1664."
By 1742, the new bridge had again become dilapidated, and £9 19s 6d was spent on its repair.
Stone bridge of 1803
The existing stone bridge was built in 1803 by local mason, William Lightfoot. By the 1880s the official name on Government Survey Maps had changed to the Welsh Bridge. The single arch has a corniceCornice
Cornice molding is generally any horizontal decorative molding that crowns any building or furniture element: the cornice over a door or window, for instance, or the cornice around the edge of a pedestal. A simple cornice may be formed just with a crown molding.The function of the projecting...
decorated with modillions at the road level. The bridge is finished with a stone balustrade
Baluster
A baluster is a moulded shaft, square or of lathe-turned form, one of various forms of spindle in woodwork, made of stone or wood and sometimes of metal, standing on a unifying footing, and supporting the coping of a parapet or the handrail of a staircase. Multiplied in this way, they form a...
in which groups of balusters alternate with solid stone blocks. The bridge was repaired in the 21st century and some of the balusters were replaced.
It remained the main road bridge crossing the Weaver within the town until the 21st century, when the A534 was diverted away from Welsh Row and the triple-arched Sir Thomas Fairfax Bridge was constructed to the north of the Welsh Row bridge.
Sources
- Garton E. Nantwich, Saxon to Puritan: A History of the Hundred of Nantwich, c 1050 to c 1642 (Johnson & Son Nantwich; 1972) (ISBN 0950273805)
- Garton E. Nantwich in the 18th Century: A Study of 18th Century Life and Affairs (Cheshire County Council; 1978)
- Hall J. A History of the Town and Parish of Nantwich, or Wich Malbank, in the County Palatine of Chester (2nd edn) (E. J. Morten; 1972) (ISBN 0-901598-24-0)
- Lake J. The Great Fire of Nantwich (Shiva Publishing; 1983) (ISBN 0 906812 57 7)
- McNeil Sale R. et al. Archaeology in Nantwich: Crown Car Park Excavations (Bemrose Press; 1978)
- Pevsner N, Hubbard E. The Buildings of England: Cheshire (Penguin Books; 1971) (ISBN 0 14 071042 6)
- Stevenson PJ. Nantwich: A Brief History and Guide (1994)