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Latitude: 50.8551 / 50°51'18"N
Longitude: -2.0143 / 2°0'51"W
OS Eastings: 399089
OS Northings: 106175
OS Grid: ST990061
Mapcode National: GBR 310.7L6
Mapcode Global: FRA 66NV.52M
Plus Code: 9C2VVX4P+27
Entry Name: Witchampton Bridge
Listing Date: 3 July 2015
Grade: II
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1426621
ID on this website: 101426621
Location: Witchampton, Dorset, BH21
County: Dorset
Civil Parish: Witchampton
Traditional County: Dorset
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Dorset
Church of England Parish: Witchampton, Stanbridge and Long Crichel with More Crichel
Church of England Diocese: Salisbury
Road bridge over the River Allen, built in 1795 by Samuel Kent, incorporating some earlier fabric.
Road bridge over the River Allen, built in 1795 by Samuel Kent, incorporating some earlier fabric.
MATERIALS: brick with stone dressings.
DESCRIPTION: triple-arched, hump-backed bridge designed in a classical style. It has three unequal spans, each having a segmental-headed arch, with stone keystones and an oversailing archivolt ring. They are set on stone piers which step back above the foundations of an earlier bridge, and there are cutwaters on the upstream (north) side. There is a brick stringcourse below the parapet and roundels at each end, obscured (2015) by vegetation. The parapet is surmounted by stone copings and the walls curve outwards at each end, terminating in square piers. The parapet carries two C19 cast-iron plaques: a traction engine plate and a transportation plate.
Situated at Witchampton, to the south-east of the village, the bridge spans the River Allen. It was designed and built in 1795 by Samuel Kent of Witchampton on the foundations of an earlier bridge. In 1974 it was recorded (Wallis, see Sources) that the bridge carried four cast-iron plaques. Two remain, fixed to the parapet, warning against misuse of the bridge: one is a traction engine plate which notes that the bridge is unsuitable for ‘weights beyond the ordinary traffic of the district’, whilst the other is an example of a ‘Transportation’ plate commonly fixed to bridges in Dorset during the reign of George IV, which threatened transportation for life for anyone found guilty of wilfully damaging the bridge.
Witchampton Bridge, built in 1795, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
* Architectural interest: as a good and intact example of a mid-C18 multi-span bridge built in a considered classical manner;
* Historical interest: the surviving traction engine and transportation plates add to its interest.
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