The Old Norman Bridge
It was a frosty but bright Monday morning in December, 2005 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...
