The Old Bridge and other Bradford on Avon, United Kingdom Things to Do Tips

It was a frosty but bright Monday morning as we set out on our stroll from the Swan Hotel, in fact the difference between the sunlit parts and the shaded valley bottom made photography a bit difficult, as you can see! The town's name actually derives from Saxon times when there was a 'broad ford' here which allowed people to cross the Avon River. Eventually, in the Norman period, records indicate that sometime in the late 1200s, a stone bridge was built here to make life a little easier. Two of those old spans still exist, with one partially visible to the left of the stone tower in this photo. However, because the original bridge was a single-lane affair without guardrails of any sort, a plaque on the bridge says that construction was undertaken in 1769 to modernize it with a second lane and parapets to prevent passengers from inadvertently falling into the Avon. The stone tower actually started life as a medieval chapel (see next Tip).

The second photo shows the view to the right up the Avon River as we started our walk across the bridge from the Swan Hotel side. We had been somewhere in those narrow streets on the hillside the night before in our search for accommodations!

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Directions: Centre of town

It was customary in medieval times to build small chapels on bridges in order to meet the needs of travellers, allowing them to give thanks for arriving safely after what could have been a long and tiring trip. One of these was incorporated into the design of the Bradford Bridge and it is one of only six chapels like this surviving to the present in England. Many of the original chapels were doomed to destruction after the 1547 Act of Dissolution of the Colleges and Chantries (fall-out from King Henry VIII and his battle with the Pope) pensioned off the priests and left the chapels with no 'official' purpose in life. The Bradford Bridge chapel was one of the lucky ones because it was an integral part of the bridge's construction, so it had to be maintained. Rather than leave it empty and useless, the chapel was converted to serve as the town lock-up (jail) where drunkards and others could 'cool their heels'. Atop the structure is a beautiful piece of work called the 'Bradford Gudgeon' (see second photo for a close-up). A 'gudgeon' is a device attached to a surface that allows something else to rotate, in this case it allowed an ancient weather vane topped by a golden fish to 'do its thing'. This attachment to the jail led to the local saying that someone was 'under the fish and over the water', meaning that he was in the lock-up !

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Directions: Eastern end of the Bradford Bridge

At the eastern end of the Bradford Bridge and just across the intersection from the Bridge Chapel, we spotted this well-worn old building, which turns out to be The Bridge Tea Rooms. I walked over for a closer look and noticed that one of the roof gables is inscribed with a date of 1675 and many of the building's lines had strange twists and bulges. However, somehow this tiny building has managed to survive in spite of being located in some of Bradford-on-Avon's prime real estate. Look how the more 'modern' houses dwarf the roof line of the tea house, even though the buildings have the same number of floors.

While checking the door out, I noticed that it's maximum height was similar to that of the 300-year old B&B cottage we stayed in while in Surrey, namely it did not even reach up to my modest (I hate to say 'short') height of 5 ft. 9 in.!! There was also a notice on the door saying that wheel-chair patrons were not allowed due to evacuation concerns in case of emergencies.

In today's world, teas are served inside by waiters dressed in the later era of Queen Victoria amid surroundings of fine china and exotic plants from Asia!

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Address: 24a Bridge Street, Bradford-on-Avon, BA15 1BY

After our short tour of Bradford-on-Avon, it was time to continue our journey toward Cornwall on this perfect sunny day for a cross-country drive. Not very long after pulling out of town, we crossed the border into Somerset County and almost immediately came across the ruins of Farleigh Castle sitting undisturbed by human life right beside the A366 highway.

I pulled off the road into a small spot marked for tour coaches and we got out to have a look. It turns out that these were the remains of a manor house built in the 1300s and sold to Sir Thomas Hungerford in 1369. Sir Thomas was a skilled lawyer and represented the King in these parts when matters of land succession had to be dealt with. Although he became the first Speaker of the House of Commons, he did get into a bit of a bind by fortifying the place without Royal permission, but received a pardon for this in 1377! The walls still standing in these photographs were built by his son in the early 1400s as he enclosed the original works, with the gatehouse and curtain walls still protecting the interior courtyard. As is often the case with hereditary situations, the Hungerford clan grip on this property came to an end in 1686 after over 300-years in the family. Sir Edward Hungerford had become embroiled on the wrong side in the 1685 Monmouth Rebellion when Protestants in this part of England tried to unseat King James II, the Roman Catholic successor to King Charles II. It was all over in five weeks and it appears that Sir Edward was implicated in the plot. He had to buy his life by giving up the estate and it then fell into ruin and was partially torn down for building materials.

I know how he feels, because we were run off the property too!! Shortly after we began wandering around, a couple of local farmers drove through on their tractor and said they would advise us to move the car out of the way because they were "driving an 'erd of cattle" through the gate in a few minutes time! I would hate to have to explain those damages to Hertz!

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Directions: The village of Farleigh Hungerford just over the Somerset border from Bradford-on-Avon