Features / things you probably didn't know
This is Bristol’s oldest bridge
Bridges are back in the news with the reopening of Gaol Ferry Bridge and the possibility of a new span over the New Cut.
But what is Bristol’s oldest bridge?
Despite our city’s name deriving from Brigstowe, meaning ‘meeting place by the bridge’, the oldest bridge in Bristol is more than two and a half miles from where the original course of the River Frome met the Avon at the site of today’s Bristol Bridge.
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Wickham Bridge used to be on the old road from Bristol to Gloucester – photo: Martin Booth
Wickham Bridge dates from the early 17th century but there was probably a medieval bridge on this site as it was on the old road to Gloucester.
The bridge over the Frome on Wickham Glen within Eastville Park is made out of pennant rubble, with two semicircular arches separated by an upstream cutwater, a smaller western arch, parapet and rock-faced copings according to its English Heritage listing.
There is also a gate pier and stile on the north-western side of the bridge on the Grade II-listed structure which is officially located in Stapleton.
A postcard of Wickham Bridge from 1918 – photo: Bristol Archives
Explore some of the oldest parts of Bristol in the Old City and Castle Park on a walking tour with Martin Booth. To find out more and to book, visit www.yuup.co/experiences/explore-bristol-s-quirkiest-corners
Main photo: Martin Booth
Read next:
- Following all 44 miles of Bristol’s boundary on foot
- The hidden river flowing underneath Bristol city centre
- Fears for future of Brunel’s ‘other’ bridge
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