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Stourport Bridge

Image: Stourport, Worcestershire from below the Bridge.

 

“The bridge of Stourport, seen in the two accompanying views, was built soon after the completion of the basin. Its first stone was laid in the month of March 1773; and, in September, 1775, it was passable. The cost was £5,000. It consisted of fifty-two arches, three of which, as represented in the plates, were over the river, and forty-nine upon land to make the approaches.    The bridge, however, after standing only a few years, was destroyed by a great flood, occasioned by a sudden thaw. Previously to the thaw, there had been a severe frost and a heavy fall of snow, and the immense quantities of ice which 4 were hurried down by the over-swollen torrent swept away every obstruction, with the most desolating fury.

This disaster led the inhabitants of Stourport to determine on the erection of an iron bridge, with an arch of such extent as to preclude the possibility of danger from any overflow of the stream. In consequence of this determination, the present beautiful structure was raised. It consists of a single arch, of one hundred and fifty feet span, and about fifty feet in perpendicular height above the surface of the water.”

Harral, vol. 2, p 5.


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Image creators: Image from Thomas Harral, Picturesque Views of the Severn, 1824.
Image courtesy of: Shropshire Records and Research


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1532-0A Journey down the Severn from Thomas Harral’s Picturesque Views of the River (1824) 562-0Introduction: the Severn Waterway 517-0Poetry and Visions of the River Severn 514-0The Severn and its Origins in Wales 516-0Newtown to Montgomery 518-0Powis Castle to Welshpool 519-0Welshpool to Shrewsbury 520-0Shrewsbury 521-0The English Bridge, Shrewsbury 522-0The Welsh Bridge, Shrewsbury 524-0Atcham Bridge, Shropshire 525-0The Wrekin 526-0Buildwas Bridge and the Severn Earthquake of 1773 529-0Coalbrookdale and the Ironbridge 530-0Madeley, Broseley and Lilleshall 535-0Bridgnorth 536-0Bridgnorth’s Economy 537-0Bridgnorth Castle 538-0Quatford and the nearby Landscape 539-0Bewdley 540-0The Wyre Forest 542-0Stourport 543-0Stourport Bridge 545-0Worcester 546-0Worcester to Upton-on-Severn 547-0Tewkesbury 550-0Gloucester 551-0Gloucester’s Economy and the Severn Trade