The third arch, on the left, currently spans Cobblers Gully and we are looking at the bridge from upstream. The pointed stone buttresses only appear on this side, so seem to be there in order to protect the brick structure from water flow and accumulation of resultant debris, which seems to indicate that the bridge was initially built to serve as a water bridge rather than a road bridge. The force of waterflow due to extra heavy rain towards the end of 2022 has completely uncovered a beautiful brick channel at the base of the third archway. It dips towards its centre, which again implies that it was primarily built as a water channel, though if it is replicated in the other two channels, it is flat enough for vehicular passageway, which would have been horse driven vehicles at the time of construction.
Unfortunately, the concrete capping on each side of the bridge is trapping water and forcing it to leech through the bricks below. Resultant deterioration (peeling) of the face of the bricks is evident.
The third arch, on the left, currently spans Cobblers Gully and we are looking at the bridge from upstream. The pointed stone buttresses only appear on this side, so seem to be there in order to protect the brick structure from water flow and accumulation of resultant debris, which seems to indicate that the bridge was initially built to serve as a water bridge rather than a road bridge.
ReplyDeleteThe force of waterflow due to extra heavy rain towards the end of 2022 has completely uncovered a beautiful brick channel at the base of the third archway. It dips towards its centre, which again implies that it was primarily built as a water channel, though if it is replicated in the other two channels, it is flat enough for vehicular passageway, which would have been horse driven vehicles at the time of construction.
Unfortunately, the concrete capping on each side of the bridge is trapping water and forcing it to leech through the bricks below. Resultant deterioration (peeling) of the face of the bricks is evident.
ReplyDeleteThank you for adding to the discussion.
ReplyDelete