Horse Bridge

New Bridge
Cornwall, Devon
The Horse Bridge from the Cornish side
Location
Crossing:	River Tamar
Location
Grid reference:	SX400748
Location:	50°33’6"N, 4°15’35"W
Structure
History
	Built 1437
Information

The Horse Bridge is a mediæval stone bridge over the River Tamar from Devonshire on the east bank to Cornwall on the west. On the Devon side is a hamlet named Horsebridge, with a small hotel, in the parish of Sydenham Damerel, while on the Cornish side are open fields.

The Horsebridge is a narrow crossing, with a roadway tight even for modern traffic, but it was the lowest bridge on the river until the New Bridge was built at Gunnislake in 1520.

Today the bridge is on no main route but it serves the local communities. It is a Grade I listed structure.

History and construction

Across the bridge

The bridge appearsd to have been built in 1437 by Tavistock Abbey, financed by the sale of indulgences. It might have marked the lower limits of the fishery on the river owned by the Abbot of Tavistock. Similarity to the Greystone Bridge upstream suggest the same builder.

The bridge is built of roughly coursed slate stone with mainly granite coping and dressings. It crosses the river in five spans with tall cutwaters on each pillar. In the manner of its time, it has a single roadway with a low parapet each side, with triangular refuges on each pillar.

On the north side of the bridge the cutwaters have curious stone corbels which may have been used for hanging salmon nets. Some putlock holes on the north side may have been used for timber structures to get access to the nets.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Horse Bridge, River Tamar)