BIDEFORD BRIDGE

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 142, 16 June 1923, Page 21

BIDEFORD BRIDGE

GATEWAY OF NORTH CORNWALL THREATENED BY MOTOR CHAR-A-BANCS.

Sad news it is that Bideford Bridge is in a serious state of decay and that unless funds are forthcoming it will have to be ; replaced by a modern and^ possibly ugly structure, states an English writer in the "Christian Science' Monitor." Every visitor to the west of England knows "Bideford Bridge, which has 1 ■been described as the'gateway of North Cornwall, the land of Arthurian romance. There never was, and possibly never will be such a . curious structure. Early in the fourteenth century the people of Devon and Cornwall realised the necessity of a bridge to take the place of ar iucouvenient ford across the River Torridge. Sir Theobald de Granville, one of the. early lords of the manor, came to the aid' of the townsfolk, but their efforts were unavailing, as no firm foundation for the piers could be found. In the nick of time, so the story goes, Sir Richard Gornard, or Gurney, dreamed that an angel showed him the • one spot where a rock stood in the river, and thus the builders were enabled to make a start. Eventually a bridge nearly 700 feet long was erected, with 24 pointed arches. A curious feature of the bridge is that the arches vary very much in size. Tradition says that the little ones were given by the poor, and the largo ones by the rich folk; but the probability is that the difference is due to the exigencies of throwing a bridge across an ever-shifting river bed. Tradition even to.-.day will tell you that Bideford Bridge' is built on woolsacks; which means nothing more than that sacks oi wool were given to defray the cost, o! that a- local tax on wool Was levied for the bridge's upkeep. At first Bideford Bridge was only wide enough for pack horses, but about 60 years ago it was- widened by the addition of a cast-iron' roadway, which the townsfolk took as an "improvement," and lovers of the picturesque as a desecration..

For nearly 600 years the bridge has been . at. work, bearing the pack horse, the stage wagon, and the mailcoach, or echo, ing to the: tramp of men passing to and fro in war. The bridge was almost Bideford itself, for Kingsley says that "as Edinburgh is Edinburgh, by ,virtue of it's castle, Rome is Rome by virtue of'its capital, and Egypt Egypt by virtue of its pyramids, bo is Bideford Bideford.by.-virtue of its bridge." But what neither the medieval builders nor even Kingsley foresaw was the coming of the motor char-a-bancs, which hasgone pounding over its ancient foundations until they are in danger of being utterly destroyed. Engineers put tha cost of repairs and reconstruction at £30,----000. The Bridge Trust has spent all 'the money.it'has, and the. Charity Commissioners forbid their breaking into their capital. .The Devon County Council are willing to put down £7000 toward saving the-bridge, and thel Ministry of Transport are ready to do the. same, providing that the BideforcVTown Council will do their share. There ought to ba no difficult there about that, but will it be believed that the Bideford Ccuuoil repudiate' any liability to maintain tha bridge? It iis as bad as though 'Edinburgh flung its castle into the sea., or London repudiated St. Paul's. There the matter rests at present, but it cannot remain so, for "Sumer is i-cumen in," as the old English song says, and the motor char-a-bancs will soon be pounding again over Bideford Bridge. What is to be done? If everything elss fails we would suggest a- world-wide subscription from every reader of Kingsley's , Westward Ho!" He spent twelve months at Bideford while he was writing it; living in Elizabethan books, "amon* -such grand,■beautiful, I.silent men, and the saving of the bridge would be a fitting tribute-to'his-memory.. .>' :• '