| Summary: | Shipley bridge, avon. Extant. County bridge since at least 1787. Vis=estimated -/-/1979 (robinson, r. ). This is the first bridge to span the river avon after it leaves the open moor. It carries the road from yalland and downstow which then bends south to didworthy and on to aish. It is first mentioned in a lease of 1631 in petre documents in the county record office but of course the present bridge does not necessarily date from this time. It is listed as a county bridge in the earliest dated list in the devon record office, that of 1787, and in some earlier undated ones. A fairly roughly built bridge with very high single arch, perhaps 5m in height. The arch itself is double course of fairly small dressed granite blocks reinforced by iron linking bands. The remainder is largely dressed granite with some slate. The span is about 5.5m and the parapet is about 70cm high and 30cm wide. Width of roadway about 3m (checklist). Vis=road bridge over river avon, at this point a moorland brook. Probably c18, widened in c19. Granite rubble. Single span round arch with dressed granite recessed arch ring. Parapets with large roughly squared granite coping stones. This bridge was originally a narrow pack-horse bridge and widened in c19 on the north upstream side. It was described by the rev samuel rowe as a "single arched moorstone bridge" but according to james coreen, the county surveyor, it was "a very rough bridge thrown across from two rocks". Reference: c henderson and e jervoise. "old devon bridges", page 24 (doe). |
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