Summary
A small stone road bridge with a single arch, probably late C18, or early C19.
Description
A small stone road bridge with a single arch, probably late C18, or early C19.
MATERIALS: it is built mostly of roughly squared rubble-stone, with C20 engineered brick supports.
DESCRIPTION: Boxal Bridge is a single-arched road bridge, which spans the Boxal Brook, and is orientated east to west. Each face has a single, central, round-arch span and gently curved splays, all built of coursed rubble-stone. It is set into the surrounding natural ground level, with low and rounded parapet walls on the north and south faces.
Later C20 brickwork lines the inside of the arch and has also been used to create four low buttress piers that mark each corner of the bridge, where the rubble-stone meets the ground-level. The northern face also has two triangular C20 brick buttresses, which support the bridge to either side of the arch.
History
Boxal Bridge was probably built in the late C18 or early C19, and like the neighbouring bridges is traditionally constructed. A map by T C Lewis of Chichester dated 1836, and the first Ordnance Survey map of 1876, show a bridge at the location of Boxal Bridge, and annotated as such.
Boxal Bridge is one of a number of bridges that surround Kirdford and Wisborough Green. Although there had probably been a ford at Boxal since the medieval period, water bailiff records from 1638 provide the first known evidence that many of the tributaries that spring up in this area were forded by managed bridges. The archives also note that by 1725, some of these bridges were constructed of stone, including Green Bridge (also known as Bridgefoot Bridge, Kirdfordv Grade II-listed). There is a long history throughout the C17 and C18 of disagreements over the responsibilities for repair between the state authorities and local landowners.
BoxalBbridge is still in operational use (2017) and spans a C-road between Wisborough Green and Kirdford. Brick buttresses have been added to the northern side, and brick buttress piers to each corner, where the older sections of the bridge are feathered into the ground level.
Reasons for Listing
Boxal Bridge, probably of the late C18 or early C19, which carries a single lane across Boxal Brook, is listed at Grade II, for the following principal reasons:
Architectural interest:
* as a well-built, traditionally constructed bridge, in local rubble-stone, comparable in quality and intactness to other listed bridges of similar date in the area;
* the historic fabric of the bridge survives well.
Historic interest:
* it illustrates the development of bridge construction across the country at a time of rapid increase in infrastructure, represented by the network of stone bridges that surround Kirdford and Wisborough Green.
External Links
External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.
Recommended Books
Old House Handbook: A Practical Guide to Care and Repair by Hunt. Roger ( 2008 ) Hardcover
Lancashire: Manchester and the South-East (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Derbyshire (Pevsner Architectural Guides) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
Essex: Buildings of England Series (Buildings of England) (Pevsner Architectural Guides: Buildings of England)
The Listed Buildings and Other Principal Structures at the Royal Gunpowder Mills Waltham Abbey
England's Post-War Listed Buildings