Montford Bridge is a village in
Shropshire
Shropshire (; alternatively Salop; abbreviated in print only as Shrops; demonym Salopian ) is a landlocked historic county in the West Midlands region of England. It is bordered by Wales to the west and the English counties of Cheshire to th ...
, England, and also the name of the bridge in that village.
It lies on the
River Severn
, name_etymology =
, image = SevernFromCastleCB.JPG
, image_size = 288
, image_caption = The river seen from Shrewsbury Castle
, map = RiverSevernMap.jpg
, map_size = 288
, map_c ...
and is close to the town of
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , also ) is a market town, civil parish, and the county town of Shropshire, England, on the River Severn, north-west of London; at the 2021 census, it had a population of 76,782. The town's name can be pronounced as either 'Sh ...
. Most of the village is in the
Montford parish, but some is covered by the
Bicton parish.
The
A5 road
A5 Road may refer to:
;Africa
* A5 highway (Nigeria), a road connecting Lagos and Ibadan
* A5 road (Zimbabwe), a road connecting Harare and Francistown
;Americas
* Quebec Autoroute 5, a road in Quebec, Canada
* County Route A5 (California) or B ...
used to run through the village (over the Montford Bridge), but has been diverted via the Shrewsbury bypass. There are still some services, such as a shop (closed as of 2011) and a pub (the ''Wingfield Arms''), in the village.
The bridge was
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 Scotla ...
's first bridge design. It was built by
John Carline and John Tilley between 1790 and 1792. It has three masonry
elliptical
Elliptical may mean:
* having the shape of an ellipse, or more broadly, any oval shape
** in botany, having an elliptic leaf shape
** of aircraft wings, having an elliptical planform
* characterised by ellipsis (the omission of words), or by conc ...
arch
An arch is a vertical curved structure that spans an elevated space and may or may not support the weight above it, or in case of a horizontal arch like an arch dam, the hydrostatic pressure against it.
Arches may be synonymous with vaul ...
spans, two of 55 ft, and the central one of 58 ft.
They are built of red sandstone obtained from
Nesscliffe Hill four miles distant. The bridge cost £5,800 to build.
Regarding the bridge, Telford wrote:
''The contractors, Messrs. Carline and Tilley, being experienced workmen, it has proved a substantial edifice, having been completed upwards of forty years, and remaining quite perfect''
It was widened in 1963 by adding a
reinforced concrete
Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion of reinforcement having hig ...
slab. The bridge is now a
Grade II 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 ...
.
English Heritage
/ref>
See also
*Listed buildings in Montford, Shropshire
Montford is a civil parish in Shropshire, England. It contains 20 listed buildings that are recorded in the National Heritage List for England. Of these, two are at Grade II*, the middle of the three grades, and the others are at Grade&nb ...
*Crossings of the River Severn
This is a list of crossings of the River Severn in Great Britain (including bridges, tunnels, ferries and fords), in order from source to mouth.
The Severn has historically been a very important and busy river, and has been bridged throughou ...
References
Bibliography
*Cragg, R., ''Civil Engineering Heritage - Wales & West Central England'', Thomas Telford Publishing, 1997,
Bridges in Shropshire
Bridges completed in 1792
Bridges across the River Severn
Grade II listed buildings in Shropshire
Villages in Shropshire
Bridges by Thomas Telford
Grade II listed bridges
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