The Lovelace Bridges were built by William King, 1st Earl of Lovelace (1805-1893) on his estate at

East Horsley East Horsley is a village and civil parish in Surrey, England, 21 miles southwest of London, on the A246 between Leatherhead and Guildford. Horsley and Effingham Junction railway stations are on the New Guildford line to London Waterloo. ...

, Surrey, in the 1860s. Fifteen bridges were built to facilitate the transport of

timber Lumber is wood that has been processed into dimensional lumber, including beams and planks or boards, a stage in the process of wood production. Lumber is mainly used for construction framing, as well as finishing (floors, wall panels, w ...

by horse-drawn carts. The bridges were built where the tracks crossed existing

bridleways A bridle path, also bridleway, equestrian trail, horse riding path, ride, bridle road, or horse trail, is a trail or a thoroughfare that is used by people riding on horses. Trails originally created for use by horses often now serve a wider r ...

or roads. Ten bridges still exist. Lovelace Bridges Trail sign

The bridges were constructed from local

flint Flint, occasionally flintstone, is a sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as the variety of chert that occurs in chalk or marly limestone. Flint was widely used historically to make stone tools and sta ...

and brick; they all had plaques with their name and dates. Most of the bridges are horseshoe shaped " Moorish" design, between a span of six feet at Meadow Plat to eighteen feet for the Dorking Arch, which crosses Crocknorth road. The Earl had his own brickworks in

West Horsley West Horsley is a semi-rural village between Guildford and Leatherhead in Surrey, England. It lies on the A246, and south of the M25 and the A3. Its civil parish ascends to an ancient woodland Sheepleas Woods which are on the northern downsl ...

/ Ockham and the lime for the mortar would have been local, possibly from chalk pits in Kiln Field Coppice. The saw mill was near Brockhole Cross, near the junction with Outdowns on the Epsom Road. There is a Lovelace Bridges Trail produced by the Horsley Countryside Preservation Society and there is a project to conserve the bridges managed by

Forestry England Forestry England is a division of the Forestry Commission, responsible for managing and promoting publicly owned forests in England. It was formed as Forest Enterprise in 1996, before devolving to Forest Enterprise England on 31 March 2003 and ...

Remaining bridges

Lost bridges

The following bridges no longer exist: Outdowns Bridge, Pine Grove Bridge, Horse Close Bridge, Oakhanger Bridge and Falcon Arch.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lovelace Bridges Bridges in Surrey