Cleveland Bridge and Four Former Toll Houses

Details

CLEVELAND PLACE (South side) Cleveland Bridge and four former toll houses (Formerly Listed as: CLEVELAND PLACE Cleveland Bridge) 12/06/50

GV II*

Road Bridge and former tollhouses. 1827, reconstructed 1928, repaired and strengthened 1992. Henry Edmund Goodridge, architect; William Hazeldine, contractor. MATERIALS: Cast iron span with limestone ashlar abutments; substantial concrete reinforcement to the inner structure. EXTERIOR: Single span, six segmental arched trusses with trellised iron spandrels which rest against massive abutment piers at either bank, span approx 30m carrying road approx 12m wide. Cast iron parapet has moulded coping and plinth and central panel to each side with date "MDCCCXXVII" in raised numerals, together with the names of the architect and engineer. Flanked by long panels of pierced vertical slits with Grecian rosettes to centres and lamp standards to piers. Inscriptions to architect and fabricator as well as recording reconstruction in 1928 by Bath City engineers. Former toll houses flanking approaches in form of small Doric temples with prostyle porticos facing onto road. Limestone ashlar with Welsh slate roofs. Single storey at road level but descend further three storeys through plinths of horizontal rustication down to river bank providing accommodation for original toll keepers; following reconstruction, the bridge was freed of tolls in 1929. HISTORY: The bridge, the third across the River Avon and the most northerly, was finally constructed by a private company at a cost of some £10,000 for the Earl of Darlington, owner of the Bathwick estate, following an Act of 1805; he was created Marquess of Cleveland in 1827. One of the finest late Georgian bridges in the Greek Revival style anywhere, and part of Goodridge's larger Cleveland Terrace development. The bridge opened up the Bathwick Estate to considerably more traffic, and provided a new, and more dignified approach to the City by bypassing Walcot Street. It stands near the likely site of the city¿s roman bridge. Hazeldine was a Shrewsbury ironmaster who was involved in the design of several bridges with Thomas Telford. The 1928 rebuilding replaced the Regency iron structure, but the architectural elements remained in place. It remains among the most characteristic examples of a Greek Revival bridge in the country. The restoration of 1992-93 was carried out by Dorothea Restoration. SOURCES: (J. Britton, `Bath and Bristol¿ in a Series of Views¿ (1829), 47 & illus.; Ison W: 'The Georgian Buildings of Bath' (1980), 53; Bath Preservation Trust, 'Beyond Mr Pulteney's Bridge' (exhib. Cat. 1987), passim; G. Wilis & A. Wilkinson, `Restoration of Cleveland Bridge in Bath¿, BIAS Journal 27 (1994), 35-36.].

Listing NGR: ST7533765655

Legacy

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

Legacy System number:

510034

Legacy System:

LBS

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