Panters Bridge

Panters Bridge, St Neot, Cornwall, PL30 4DP

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Overview

Two-span bridge, dating from the early C15 and incorporating earlier material. Closed to motor traffic by 1968. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1329216
Date first listed:: 21-Aug-1964
List Entry Name:: Panters Bridge
Statutory Address:: Panters Bridge, St Neot, Cornwall, PL30 4DP

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Date:: 2002-04-09
Reference:: IOE01/05230/25
Rights:: © Anne Newell. Source: Historic England Archive

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II*
List Entry Number:: 1329216
Date first listed:: 21-Aug-1964
Date of most recent amendment:: 14-May-2018
List Entry Name:: Panters Bridge
Location Description:: NGR: SX1589468025
Statutory Address 1:: Panters Bridge, St Neot, Cornwall, PL30 4DP
Statutory Address 2:: Panters Bridge, Warleggan, Cornwall, PL30 4DP

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

Unless the List entry states otherwise, it includes both the structure itself and any object or structure fixed to it (whether inside or outside) as well as any object or structure within the curtilage of the building.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

This List entry helps identify the building designated at this address for its special architectural or historic interest.

For these purposes, to be included within the curtilage of the building, the object or structure must have formed part of the land since before 1st July 1948.

Understanding list entries

Corrections and minor amendments

Location

Statutory Address:: Panters Bridge, St Neot, Cornwall, PL30 4DP
Statutory Address:: Panters Bridge, Warleggan, Cornwall, PL30 4DP

The building or site itself may lie within the boundary of more than one authority.

District:: Cornwall (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: St. Neot
District:: Cornwall (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Warleggan
National Grid Reference:: SX1589268020

Summary

Two-span bridge, dating from the early C15 and incorporating earlier material. Closed to motor traffic by 1968.

Reasons for Designation

Panters Bridge, dating from C15 and incorporating earlier material, is listed at Grade II* for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* an excellent survival of an early medieval bridge which retains the majority of its C15 fabric with little significant alteration; * it is a well-constructed structure with well-constructed arches to the spans.

Historic interest:

* a good example of a multi-arch bridge spanning a small river; * it forms part of a historic route between the historic towns of Bodmin and Liskeard.

History

Panters Bridge is a multi-span bridge of two arches, crossing the River Bedalder, a tributary of the River Fowey, on the road between Mount, to the west, and St Neot, to the east. The river runs north to south, marking the boundary between the parishes of St Neot and Warleggan, with a small tributary joining the river from the west, on the upstream side of the bridge. Although now a minor road, this was the main medieval route linking the important market towns of Liskeard and Bodmin.

Panters Bridge appears in the name of a nearby tin working site, the ‘Pontwysebrygge work’ documented in 1514, and this earlier form of the name was also preserved as ‘Pontwise Bridge’ in a document of 1613 reciting the Bounds of St Neot Parish. It has also been considered that the name may originate in the ‘Pontiesu’ place-name included in a charter of 1241, although that would relate to a predecessor of the present bridge.

The present bridge largely dates to the early C15, but its western abutment incorporates material from an earlier phase. The form and construction of the bridge is typical of that date, bearing close similarities to other C15 bridges elsewhere in south-west England. A similar example can be found at Treverbyn Bridge approximately three miles to the east on the same route and documented as being rebuilt in 1412-1413. The only alterations to the bridge have been for necessary maintenance.

The road between Liskeard and Bodmin lost its importance in the early C19 when a new turnpike was opened through the Glynn Valley to the south (the modern A38). A new bridge was built adjacent to Panters Bridge in 1968, leaving the medieval structure for pedestrian use only.

Details

Two-span bridge, dating from the early C15 and incorporating earlier material. Closed to motor traffic by 1968.

MATERIALS: Slatestone, with some granite boulders and slabs. Dressed granite parapet copings.

DESCRIPTION: Panters Bridge spans the River Bedalder north-east to south-west with two arches, 22m long on the north side and 44.5m long on the south, varying in width from approximately 3m in the centre to 8m at the south-west end. It is constructed mainly of slatestone rubble with some granite slabs and blocks, the variations in size of the material revealing areas of later rebuild and maintenance. The arches are slightly pointed with double arch rings of slate, the inner slightly recessed. The arches spring from a low level above the riverbed, with the abutment walls carrying the bridge across both riverbanks for several metres. The central pier separating the arches has pointed cutwaters, their faces continued into the parapet as triangular refuges. The sides of the bridge rise above the carriageway as parapets, continuing above the abutments and reducing in height: the north-western parapet terminates on the abutments while that on the south-east extends to flank the approach to the bridge. The parapets vary in height and have iron-cramped granite coping slabs, some with a slight chamfer along each upper edge. The southern face of the south-west abutment incorporates an earlier abutment, visible as a wall of coursed large granite blocks sloping south-west, visible for 5.5m adjacent to the bank.

Legacy

The contents of this record have been generated from a legacy data system.

Legacy System number:: 62284
Legacy System:: LBS

Sources

Books and journals
Henderson, C, Coates, H, Old Cornish Bridges and Streams, (1928)
Austin, D, Gerrard, GAM, Greeves, TAP, 'Tin And Agriculture Landscape Archaeology In St Neot Parish' in Cornish Archaeology, , Vol. 28, (1989), 5-251
Websites
Heritage Gateway – Panters Bridge HER record, accessed 9 March 2018 from http://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCO9649&resourceID=1020
National Heritage List for England – Panters Bridge List entry 1329216, accessed 9 March 2018 from https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1329216
The Bridge Club:a dance to the music of bridges, accessed 9 March 2018 from http://thebridgeclub2011.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/111128-bedalder-medhalder-or-warleggan.html
Other
Ordance Survey, Cornwall, 2nd edition (1906) (1:2500)

Legal

This building is listed under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990 as amended for its special architectural or historic interest.