Llandeilo Bridge
Llandeilo Bridge is a Grade-II* listed road bridge crossing the River Towy in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire. It carries the main A483 road towards Ffairfach.[1]
History and description
The single-arch bridge was designed by Llandeilo's[1] William Williams, the county bridge surveyor, and built between 1843 and 1848.[2] It replaced a previous three-arched bridge over the river than had, in turn, replaced the mediæval seven-arch bridge which had collapsed in 1795.[2] The construction logistics defeated Williams' builder, Morgan Morgan, who was sacked after the entire budget of £6000 was spent building the difficult foundations.[2] Williams died before the bridge was completed and, in 1846, Edward Haycock took over the project. It eventually cost a massive £23,000.[2]
The earlier bridge had been criticised as not even wide enough for a horse and cart,[2] therefore the new bridge was wide enough for a double carriageway. A single arch spanned 143 ft across the river,[1] rising 35 ft above it[3] (at the time it was the third longest single arch in Britain). The height of the bridge essentially reduced the gradient of the road towards the town.[2] The bridge, arch soffits, parapets and buttresses are faced with chisel- or hammer-dressed masonry, while the voussoirs of the arch are lengthy and finished with ashlar.[3] Large stone buttresses marked each end of the arch, and similar buttresses continued in either direction from the bridge supporting the long causeways towards Llandeilo and Ffairfach.[1]
The bridge became Grade-II* listed in 1966.[1]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 "Llandeilo Bridge (including causeways) (partly in Dyffryn Cennen community), Llandeilo". British Listed Buildings. http://www.britishlistedbuildings.co.uk/wa-11040-llandeilo-bridge-including-causeways-part. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lloyd, Thomas; Orbach, Julian; Scourfield, Robert (2006). The Buildings of Wales: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. Newhaven and London: Yale University Press. p. 250. ISBN 0-300-10179-1. https://books.google.com/books?id=wEkcJb2lHx8C&pg=PA250#v=onepage&q&f=false.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Cragg, Roger, ed (1986). Civil Engineering Heritage: Wales and West Central England. London: Thomas Telford Publishing. pp. 77-78. ISBN 0-7277-2576-9. https://books.google.com/books?id=oTZZsUzmKrMC&pg=PA77#v=onepage&q&f=false.
Outside links
- Location map: 51°52’47"N, 3°59’43"W
- Llandeilio Bridge - its history
