Packhorse Bridge, North of Coombe Gill Mill

Borrowdale, Keswick, CA12 5XQ

Listed on the National Heritage List for England. Search over 400,000 listed places

Overview

Packhorse bridge, C18 or earlier. Read the official list entry to find out more.

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1480205
Date first listed:: 19-Apr-2022
List Entry Name:: Packhorse Bridge, North of Coombe Gill Mill
Statutory Address:: Borrowdale, Keswick, CA12 5XQ

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Official list entry

Heritage Category:: Listed Building
Grade:: II
List Entry Number:: 1480205
Date first listed:: 19-Apr-2022
List Entry Name:: Packhorse Bridge, North of Coombe Gill Mill
Statutory Address 1:: Borrowdale, Keswick, CA12 5XQ

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:: Borrowdale, Keswick, CA12 5XQ

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

District:: Cumberland (Unitary Authority)
Parish:: Borrowdale
National Park:: LAKE DISTRICT
National Grid Reference:: NY2536013543

Summary

Packhorse bridge, C18 or earlier.

Reasons for Designation

Coombe Gill packhorse bridge, of at least early-C18 date, is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:

Architectural interest:

* a simple, arched hump-backed bridge constructed in the local vernacular style and materials, which illustrates key features such as a narrow form and low parapets; * it pre-dates 1850 and therefore falls within the period when most bridges are considered to be of special interest; * it is an intact structure that unusually has seen little or no later modification.

Historic interest:

* situated on a historic pack-horse route, it illustrates the development of early infrastructure in a pre-motorised age.

Group value:

* it benefits from a spatial, functional and historic group value with Coombe Gill Mill which it served.

History

This packhorse bridge was constructed to provide access across the Coombe Gill and was used by tenants bringing their corn to Coombe Gill Mill to be ground into flour. Simple, but strong pack horse bridges were built to allow safe passage for pack horses across rivers and streams, and were built to allow one horse at a time so were narrow with low parapets to allow clearance of the loads carried in panniers slung on each side of the horse. Although the bridge has provided access to the mill for centuries, its exact date of construction is uncertain, but like the mill itself it is considered to be at least early C18 in date. It is depicted on the Tithe Map of 1842, and again on an estate map of 1843. Its basic footprint is unchanged in its depiction on the 1:2,500 first edition Ordnance Survey (OS) map of 1864, and it remains unchanged on subsequent OS editions down to the present day.

Details

Packhorse bridge, C18 or earlier.

DESCRIPTION: a single-span, arched hump-backed bridge of local slate rubble stone, carrying a former pack horse route across the Coombe Gill to the nearby Coombe Gill Mill. The single arch has crude but carefully laid voussoirs, and the bridge has low, boulder stone parapets about three courses high, with large, irregular, flat coping stones. Part of the cobble surface of the bridge is clearly visible.

Sources

None.

Legal

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