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Devizes Town Bridge |
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Devizes, Wiltshire KAC54.04 |
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KandAC mile 54
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Devizes Town Bridge from westwards; whatever charm it had is utterly
spoiled by the insensitive new steps.
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Devizes Town Bridge carries Bath Road, westwards out of the town, over
the canal.
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The bridge is stone built; 54 miles 4 chains from Reading.
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headroom |
11ft5ins |
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depth of water |
5ft0ins |
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Although the crossing is skew the bridge stonework is the same as for
a straight bridge. John Rennie's experiments with skew stonework are
not applied here.
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View in to Devizes from Devizes Town Bridge; Wadworth's Northgate
Brewery just in sight down on the left.
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View out of Devizes from Devizes Town Bridge; the Artichoke pub was
closed but is re-opened, down on the right is the gateway into
Braeside residential centre.
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The towpath tunnel alongside the canal bridge, from the east.
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The towpath is taken under the road by a separate tunnel. Note that
this is a roving bridge, where the towpath changes sides of the canal,
from north side to the east over to south side to the west. The change
over of the horse ropes, involved enough in the lock, is quite
complicated and cannot be done without detaching the tow.
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While the Caen Hill Flight of locks was being constructed the tunnel
was used by a horse drawn tramroad for works traffic and to connect
the two parts of the canal.
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Rope wear on the upper end plate.
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The tow ropes have worn grooves in a metal plate at the east end of
the towpath tunnel, and on a bar at the west end.
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Rope wear on the upper end plate.
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Rope wear on a protective iron bar at the lower end.
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The stonework in the towpath tunnel is fine ashlar work. The courses
for the flattish ?elliptical arch are labelled by the masons; roman
numbers for courses III, IIII and V can be found. (These are not
mason's marks to claim what work had been done by what member of a
gang but mason's mark for construction purposes.)
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Roman numbers on courses III, IIII, and V in the tramroad arch.
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Gorham, Major: 1920: Kennet and Avon canal and its Marks: Transactions
of the Somerset Masters Lodge:: pp.172-182
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Kennet and Avon Scrapbook 2000
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