Llandeilo Bridge

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Llandeilo Bridge Pont Llandeilo - geograph.org.uk - 472194.jpg
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]

Contents

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 Bridge over the Tywi at Llandeilo - geograph.org.uk - 1447405.jpg
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

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 "Llandeilo Bridge (including causeways) (partly in Dyffryn Cennen community), Llandeilo". British Listed Buildings. Retrieved 10 January 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 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. 1 2 Cragg, Roger, ed. (1986). Civil Engineering Heritage: Wales and West Central England. London: Thomas Telford Publishing. pp. 77–78. ISBN   0-7277-2576-9.

51°52′47″N3°59′43″W / 51.8796°N 3.9953°W / 51.8796; -3.9953