East Farleigh Bridge is a road bridge across the

River Medway The River Medway is a river in South East England. It rises in the High Weald AONB, High Weald, East Sussex and flows through Tonbridge, Maidstone and the Medway conurbation in Kent, before emptying into the Thames Estuary near Sheerness, a to ...

in East Farleigh,

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

, England. The bridge is medieval and was probably constructed in the 14th century. It comprises four arches, spanning the river and a smaller, later arch spanning the north bank. A long retaining wall carrying the road over the low-lying meadow to the south of the river has a blind arch on one side. The bridge is a Grade I

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

and a scheduled ancient monument. It is built of coursed

rag-stone Rag-stone is a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones that are quarried in thin pieces, such as Horsham Stone, sandstone, Yorkshire stone, and the slate stones, but this is more properly flag or slab work. Near London ...

with

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 ...

capping stones to the parapets. The bridge is narrow, only wide enough to permit traffic to pass in one direction at a time. The bridge features substantial cutwaters on each side. It has been described as "probably the finest medieval bridge in the south of England". East Farleigh Bridge, buttresses

References

{{reflist Borough of Maidstone Grade I listed buildings in Kent Scheduled monuments in Kent Bridges in Kent Road bridges in England

See also

References