Llandeilo Bridge

Llandeilo Bridge (Welsh: Pont Llandeilo) is a Grade II* listed road bridge crossing the River Towy in Llandeilo, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It carries the main A483 road towards Ffairfach.[1]

Llandeilo Bridge

History and description

The single-arch bridge was designed by Llandeilo's[1] William Williams, the county bridge surveyor, and built between 1843 and 1848.[2] It replaced a previous three-arched bridge over the river than had, in turn, replaced the medieval seven-arch bridge which had collapsed in 1795.[2] The construction logistics defeated Williams' builder, Morgan Morgan, who was sacked after the entire budget of £6000 was spent building the difficult foundations.[2] Williams died before the bridge was completed and, in 1846, Edward Haycock took over the project. It eventually cost a massive £23,000.[2]

Causeway approach from the south

The earlier bridge had been criticised as not even wide enough for a horse and cart,[2] therefore the new bridge was wide enough for a double carriageway. A single arch spanned 143 ft (43m) across the river,[1] rising 35 ft (10.5m) above it[3] (at the time it was the third longest single arch in Britain). The height of the bridge essentially reduced the gradient of the road towards the town.[2] The bridge, arch soffits, parapets and buttresses are faced with chisel- or hammer-dressed masonry, while the voussoirs of the arch are lengthy and finished with ashlar.[3] Large stone buttresses marked each end of the arch, and similar buttresses continued in either direction from the bridge supporting the long causeways towards Llandeilo and Ffairfach.[1]

The bridge became Grade II* listed in 1966.[1]

See also

References
  1. "Llandeilo Bridge (including causeways) (partly in Dyffryn Cennen community), Llandeilo". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  2. Lloyd, Thomas; Orbach, Julian; Scourfield, Robert (2006). The Buildings of Wales: Carmarthenshire and Ceredigion. Newhaven and London: Yale University Press. p. 250. ISBN 0-300-10179-1.
  3. Cragg, Roger, ed. (1986). Civil Engineering Heritage: Wales and West Central England. London: Thomas Telford Publishing. pp. 77–78. ISBN 0-7277-2576-9.

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