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The Old Wye Bridge or Town Bridge at
Chepstow Chepstow ( cy, Cas-gwent) is a town and community in Monmouthshire, Wales, adjoining the border with Gloucestershire, England. It is located on the tidal River Wye, about above its confluence with the River Severn, and adjoining the western ...
, also known historically as Chepstow Bridge, crosses the
River Wye The River Wye (; cy, Afon Gwy ) is the fourth-longest river in the UK, stretching some from its source on Plynlimon in mid Wales to the Severn estuary. For much of its length the river forms part of the border between England and Wales. ...
between
Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
in Wales and Gloucestershire in England, close to Chepstow Castle. Although there had been earlier wooden bridges on the site since Norman times, the current road bridge was constructed of
cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content more than 2%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloy constituents affect its color when fractured: white cast iron has carbide impuriti ...
in 1816 during the
Regency period The Regency era of British history officially spanned the years 1811 to 1820, though the term is commonly applied to the longer period between and 1837. King George III succumbed to mental illness in late 1810 and, by the Regency Act 1811, ...
, by John Rastrick of
Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. History ...
, who greatly modified earlier plans by John Rennie. The bridge crosses a river with one of the highest tidal ranges in the world. It carried the main A48 road between Newport and Gloucester until 1988, when a new road bridge was opened downstream alongside
Chepstow Railway Bridge Chepstow Railway Bridge was built to the instructions of Isambard Kingdom Brunel in 1852. The "Great Tubular Bridge" over the River Wye at Chepstow, which at that point forms the boundary between Wales and England, is considered one of Brunel ...
. The road bridge now carries local traffic between Chepstow and Tutshill. It is a Grade I listed building.


Earlier structures

Before the Roman period, the crossing of the Wye farthest downstream was at Tintern. The
Romans Roman or Romans most often refers to: * Rome, the capital city of Italy * Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD * Roman people, the people of ancient Rome *''Epistle to the Romans'', shortened to ''Romans'', a let ...
built a crossing some upstream of the current bridge at Chepstow, and this is thought to have continued in use for centuries thereafter. There was a small hospital and chapel dedicated to
St. David Saint David ( cy, Dewi Sant; la, Davidus; ) was a Welsh bishop of Mynyw (now St Davids) during the 6th century. He is the patron saint of Wales. David was a native of Wales, and tradition has preserved a relatively large amount of detail a ...
on the Gloucestershire side of the bridge, which was described as ruined in 1573. Some remains of the Roman bridge were revealed in 1911 by Dr.
Orville Owen Dr. Orville Ward Owen (January 1, 1854 – March 31, 1924) was an American physician, and exponent of the Baconian theory of Shakespearean authorship. Owen claimed to have discovered hidden messages contained in the works of Shakespeare/Bacon. He ...
during his excavations in the river bed. After the Normans established a castle at Chepstow (then known as Striguil), a wooden bridge was constructed across the river at or close to its current site. The first records of a bridge at Chepstow date from 1228. The wooden bridge is known to have been replaced several times. Rebuilding was made difficult by the tidal range, requiring ten timber piers, perhaps the highest in the country at the time. Records from 1399 describe it as "feeble and ruinous and on the point of being lost", and a new bridge built in 1546 was described less than thirty years later as having "fallen into great ruin and decay and likely to fall." In 1576, an Act (the first to make specific reference to
Monmouthshire Monmouthshire ( cy, Sir Fynwy) is a county in the south-east of Wales. The name derives from the historic county of the same name; the modern county covers the eastern three-fifths of the historic county. The largest town is Abergavenny, with ...
) was passed making Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire responsible for the repair of their respective halves; there are records of payments made by Gloucestershire parishes to help maintain the bridge until the 19th century. Neglect continued, however, and in 1605 it was said that the bridge was again "broken, fallen down and quite carried away with the Stream... whereby the said Passage and Highway is utterly taken away..." Under new legislation that year it was agreed that the bridge be maintained by a special "bridge money" tax levied on the residents of the two counties. For the next two centuries each county appointed a surveyor responsible for either end of the bridge.Rick Turner and Andy Johnson (eds.), ''Chepstow Castle - its history and buildings'', Logaston Press, 2006, , p.212 Apart from one stone pier in the centre, the bridge was entirely built of wood. The bridge was purposely destroyed by the
Royalists A royalist supports a particular monarch as head of state for a particular kingdom, or of a particular dynastic claim. In the abstract, this position is royalism. It is distinct from monarchism, which advocates a monarchical system of governme ...
during the
Civil War A civil war or intrastate war is a war between organized groups within the same state (or country). The aim of one side may be to take control of the country or a region, to achieve independence for a region, or to change government policie ...
in 1644, but was rebuilt by 1647. It was seriously damaged by storms in 1703, and again by high water in 1738, but was repaired both times. William Cole wrote of the bridge in 1746 that it was "the lightest in England, and the highest from the water." A suggestion in 1768 that the two counties should share the cost of building a new bridge failed because Monmouthshire – a smaller and less prosperous county than Gloucestershire – considered it unreasonable that it should pay half the cost. However, in 1785, the wooden piers on the Monmouthshire side were rebuilt as four stone arches, although the Gloucestershire half remained timber until 1815.


The 1816 bridge

In 1810 the bridge was again declared to be "in decay" and dangerous, and local magistrates commissioned engineer John Rennie, the architect of Waterloo Bridge in London, to design a new bridge. Rennie's designs, at an estimated cost of £41,890 (equivalent to £ in ), were considered to be too expensive, but action was eventually taken after a ship collided with the wooden bridge in 1812, demolishing part of it and causing six deaths. The foundation stone for the new bridge was laid on 13 April 1813. In 1814 the contract to build the bridge was let to the
Bridgnorth Bridgnorth is a town in Shropshire, England. The River Severn splits it into High Town and Low Town, the upper town on the right bank and the lower on the left bank of the River Severn. The population at the 2011 Census was 12,079. History ...
firm of Hazeldine, Rastrick & Co., at a cost of £17,850, less than half that of Rennie's estimate. The bridge was designed by John Rastrick, in a style apparently inspired by the work of
Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotlan ...
. It was made of cast iron in five arches, cast at Bridgnorth, with a centre span of , intermediate spans of , and outer spans of . The bridge was opened on 24 July 1816, with an elaborate ceremony. The bridge is the largest iron arch road bridge remaining from the first half-century of iron and steel construction, before the technological innovation of
suspension bridge A suspension bridge is a type of bridge in which the deck is hung below suspension cables on vertical suspenders. The first modern examples of this type of bridge were built in the early 1800s. Simple suspension bridges, which lack vertical ...
s. It is described by architectural historian John Newman as "a supremely elegant composition of five shallow segmental lattice arches carrying the gently curved roadway... This superstructure rests on reassuringly strong tapering piers of squared
ashlar Ashlar () is finely dressed (cut, worked) stone, either an individual stone that has been worked until squared, or a structure built from such stones. Ashlar is the finest stone masonry unit, generally rectangular cuboid, mentioned by Vitruv ...
...".John Newman, ''The Buildings of Wales: Gwent/Monmouthshire'', Penguin Books, 2000, , p.184 Ornate ironwork on the bridge marks the boundary point between the two counties of Gloucester and Monmouth. The cast iron lamp posts were bought from
Sheffield City Council Sheffield City Council is the city council for the metropolitan borough of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It consists of 84 councillors, elected to represent 28 wards, each with three councillors. It is currently under No Overall Con ...
and installed in 1969. The bridge became a Grade I listed building on 24 March 1975. Carrying the main road between Gloucester and South Wales, the bridge became a notorious bottleneck and was strengthened several times. The bridge was first strengthened in 1889, and there were major structural repairs in 1979. It was superseded, except for local traffic, by the A48 road bridge opened in January 1988. The bridge now carries local traffic on the unclassified road between Chepstow and Tutshill, and is controlled by traffic signals at each end. It was closed to vehicle traffic for several months in 2015, for maintenance work for the bridge's
bicentenary __NOTOC__ A bicentennial or bicentenary is the two-hundredth anniversary of a part, or the celebrations thereof. It may refer to: Europe *French Revolution bicentennial, commemorating the 200th anniversary of 14 July 1789 uprising, celebrated i ...
in July 2016. A member of the group coordinating the commemoration arrangements described the bridge as "the finest Georgian Regency arch bridge in Britain and the world," and suggested that it should be proposed for World Heritage Site status. Katharine Skellon, "Bid for World Heritage Status for iconic bridge", ''South Wales Argus'', 27 September 2015
Retrieved 6 October 2015
The bicentenary celebrations included a re-enactment of the original opening ceremony, with speeches from local civic leaders and Sir John Armitt, the
president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...
of the
Institution of Civil Engineers The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) is an independent professional association for civil engineers and a charitable body in the United Kingdom. Based in London, ICE has over 92,000 members, of whom three-quarters are located in the UK, wh ...
.BBC News, "Chepstow Bridge's 200 year-old crossing celebrated", 24 July 2016
Retrieved 24 July 2016


See also

* List of crossings of the River Wye


Gallery

File:This high water view of the Cast Iron Bridge erected over the River Wye at Chepstow in the year 1816.jpeg, A view of the bridge, c.1820 File:Chepstow Castle and Bridge from Tutshill.jpg, The bridge and Chepstow Castle, viewed from Tutshill File:Chepstow_Bridge_-_geograph.org.uk_-_288954.jpg, Low tide File:Chepstow Bridge with a very high tide on the Wye - geograph.org.uk - 346225.jpg, An abnormally high tide File:Ornate Ironwork - geograph.org.uk - 128501.jpg, Decorative ironwork in the centre of the bridge, showing the Monmouthshire-Gloucestershire boundary line


References

{{authority control Grade I listed bridges in Wales Grade I listed buildings in Monmouthshire Grade I listed buildings in Gloucestershire Chepstow River Wye Bridges in Gloucestershire Bridges in Monmouthshire Bridges across the River Wye Cast-iron arch bridges in England Cast-iron arch bridges in Wales Tidenham