Newport's Town Bridge

History of the Timber Bridges (c1100-1800)

By Peter Brown

The first bridge in the Newport area was probably at Caerleon during the Roman era and there is no suggestion of a bridge across the Usk in Newport itself before the Medieval period, when Newport became the market town for the Norman lordship of Gwynllwg. The original settlement was above Stow Hill, based around St Woolos Church and the first castle, but the focus of the settlement moved down towards the riverside probably during the early 12th century, with the development of the shipping trade. We do not know the date of the first castle on the site of the present one next to the bridge, but this may have been constructed by 1140.[1] The site of the new castle was probably dictated by its proximity to the bridge so that entry to the town could be controlled, as well as access along the river to Caerleon for ships that could pass under the bridge. The East Gate of the town stood immediately to the south of the castle and opened onto the bridge, allowing taxes to be collected upon entry to the town and this gate survived into the 18th century.

A land grant of 1072-1104 provides the first clear reference to a bridge at Newport, referring to acreage juxta pontem Novi Burgi et juxta ripam Uscae (next to the bridge of the New Port and the river Usk),[2] and this first bridge may have replaced an earlier ferry system, though we have no record of this. Money spent for repairing the bridge, castle and other structures at Newport was also entered in the Pipe Roll of 1184-5[3], which was the financial record system maintained by the Exchequer. The bridge was recorded again in 1265 when it was apparently burnt by the Earl of Leicester, Simon de Montfort.[4] How soon the bridge was replaced is uncertain, but in 1324 Hugh Despenser secured freedom for the burgesses and tenants of Newport and other towns from payment of the bridge toll known as pontage, but it is impossible to be certain from the 1324 charter that a bridge then existed at Newport.[5] There was certainly a bridge in 1361, when the will of William Welshe bequeathed 12d and other monies to the bridge of Newport,[6] which is the earliest surviving example of a will with a bequest for the upkeep of the bridge.

There is no specific record that the bridge was destroyed when Owen Glyndwr captured the town in 1402, but the damage to the town and castle was extensive and it is unlikely to have escaped unscathed. Certainly the bridge needed rebuilding soon afterwards and in a document of 1411, the lieges of Newport ‘request that they be granted pontage for the repair of their bridge’ and the King ‘has granted this’.[7] The efforts were presumably not very successful, for in 1418 Bishop Edmund Lacey of Hereford offered an indulgence of 40 days for anyone who would contribute to repairing the fabric of the bridge.[8] Lacey’s offer can have had few takers, since in 1420 he was offering the like indulgence for persons assisting with the construction of Newport bridge; a bridge was ultimately erected, for it is mentioned casually in the Compotus Roll of 1434-5.

The bridge was apparently maintained intact through most of the 15th century, but in the third year of Henry VII (1487-88), a ferry passage across the Usk below the castle was farmed for £3 6s 8d a year to Ieuan ap Howell ap Griffith while a new bridge was being built.[9] This ferry did not last long, however, for a year after it was farmed the boat sank in the river. The bridge was also recorded as newly rebuilt in 1496, according to an account that “The late Col Bradney recorded that he had read a document dated 1496 which stated that the bridge had been recently rebuilt where before had been a ferry worth 66/8d. per annum.”[10]

The new bridge came to grief on 23 February 1533 in a feud between the Morgan and Herbert families, in which the Morgans destroyed the bridge to prevent the Herberts from crossing the river.[11] The bridge was quickly rebuilt, and John Leland mentioned the timber bridge at Newport in writing of his travels through Wales a few years after 1533 as “The bridges of Cairleon and Newport be both of wood…There is a great stone gate by the Bridge at the Este Ende of the Town”.[12]

In 1548, the South Wales Chantry Certificates record the following details of the bridge, as these certificates documented the former property and charities of the Catholic Church from before the Reformation, which had often supported the maintenance of bridges.[13]

"The said Towne of Newport ys a fare Mrket Towne and hathe a fayre Haveyn comyng to the same and adyoining to the same towne ys there one fare bridge, over the Ryvar of Vske being in lenthe iij c l. yardes. Where the water most comenly doithe flowe in heithe frome the low Water marke. Vpe right vij fadome. The Repa'cions of the whiche bridge doith stand thenabitaunts of the said Towne yerely in the som[m]e of xli and above."

This most interesting statement reveals the difference in height between the high and low water levels of vii (7) fathoms, or 42’ (12.7m), which is close to the modern calculation. The town is also described in the document as having ‘660 houseling-people’ (Easter communicants) and the townsfolk were evidently required to pay annual reparation, so that the bridge was always kept in good repair.

The Mayor and bailiffs were responsible for collecting numerous rents payable by holders of chantry property towards the repair of the bridge and the Crown grant of the Chantries to William Herbert in 1550 reserved 20/- from each chantry and 6/8d from St Lawrence Chapel to the repair of Newport bridge.[14] Depositions in the chantry dispute show that these rents were collected by the town officers.[15] A former common attorney also stated that he used to receive from one tenement 3/4d yearly towards the repair of the bridge.[16] Morgan Thomas Willye declared that he had once taken a warrant from the King’s Receiver to 3/4d from this tenement but had received nothing because the rent was “given yearly by Queen Elizabeth or her officers towards the reparacion of the Bridge…It was levied accordingly by the common attorneys of the said Towne.” A later list of chantry properties in 1609 mentions a reserved rent of 40s. ‘towards the repaire of Newporte bridge’.[17]

There were also many legacies to the bridge by various members of the Tredegar family and others, the most munificent of these being Sir William Morgan’s 1580 legacy of £100 “…towards the maintenance of the bridge of Newport, to remain in the custody of Lewis Thomas and Thomas Lloyd of Newport standing bounden to my executor that the same shall be employed and bestowed upon the said bridge.”[18] In April 1581, the Mayor and burgesses certified in Quarter Sessions that this £100 had eventually been handed over by Miles Morgan “By means of a debt due upon him” and that they had purchased, with the assent of the late Mayor and burgesses, a grove of timber in readiness for erecting a new bridge.”[19] Other benefactors were as follows.[20]

Henry Morgan, priest, who bequeathed 3/4 to the bridge in 1543
Giles Morgan, who left 40/- for the reparation of the bridge in 1570
Miles Morgan, who bequeathed £10 towards rebuilding the bridge in 1578

In 1587 the fifteen-arch bridge collapsed “to the utter decay of the town” but it is not clear whether this was the new bridge being discussed in 1581, or the old one still awaiting reconstruction, though the county magistrates and other gentlemen undertook to subscribe generously to a repair fund which was entrusted to the Mayor and his officers.[21] Unfortunately the next Mayor, Miles Herbert, J.P., used his office to convert this fund to his own private use so that many people stopped contributing. The burgesses failed to elect a new Mayor and officers who could demand the money from Miles Herbert, leading to a Bill of Complaint at the Court of Star Chamber[22], but another reference in 1587 describes the “right strong bridge…of timer newe”.[23]

In 1592, the will of Henrye Jones of Newporte required “My executor to carry one boatful of stones to the bridge of Newporte for 40s. He is to take but 26s 8d for the carriage thereof which 26s.8d. I owe to the reparations of the bridge of ‘Chence’ money and the other 13s.4d.”[24] These chense fines were paid by strangers for the privilege of trading in the borough and are thus an indication of an attractive market.[25]

By 1596 the bridge was described as being “fallen to great ruin and decay” in the act passed for its repair, together with the bridge at Caerleon.[26] Jones has described how they never recovered the bridge fund, since in 1597 it was found necessary to petition for an Act of Parliament to get the ruined bridge repaired.[27] By this Act, the inhabitants of the county became chargeable for the maintenance and repair of the bridge, which henceforth was to be the responsibility of the county magistrates. The task had become too great a burden for the Corporation of the little borough, whereas the county had sufficient resources to support frequent and substantial expenditure on the bridge, whose preservation was essential to the economy of the whole region. The 1597 statute recited how in 1530, a general act for bridge repairs on the principle of local rating was passed, but that statute did not extend to the marcher lordships, so the 1597 legislation incorporated Newport and Caerleon so that the earlier act now applied to them too.[28]

The character of these timber bridges was indicated much later by Edward Senior in his ballad depicting life in Newport and changes he had witnessed over a period of sixty years; written in 1774, it mentions “old bridge….built of oak and timber”, which was used by packhorse mules carrying goods prior to the introduction of railways and canals.[29]

The first illustration we have of the bridge, by Samuel and Nathaniel Buck in 1732.
The arch of the east gate can still be seen.

In 1791, ‘the milestone on Newport Bridge’ was used as a base point from which estimated distances to Cardiff Town Hall were measured by different routes, each one having its own milestones.[30]

A tour book[31], descriptive of a journey through South Wales, contains an interesting account of the bridges over the Wye at Chepstow and the Usk at Newport:

“which are built upon exceeding high piles of wood and floored with boards which are always loose, but prevented from slipping by small tenons at their ends, the precaution of having the boards unfixed is not necessary as the tides in these rivers sometimes rise to a stupendous height, and would otherwise blow up the bridges”.

The Rev. J Evans, who crossed the old timber bridge just before it was taken down in 1799, reported the following:

“the river Usk was bestrided by a long, narrow, wooden bridge with a sliding floor, which was ill-calculated to resist the height of the tide or the rapidity of the stream. Such was the decayed state of the timber that for a long time previous to its being taken down, a carriage could not venture over it, and it was discovered that it was only taken down in time to prevent the most serious consequences”.[32]

A poem written in 1860 by Edward Bevan of Newport also recalled the bridge in 1799 at the end of its life.

“The old wooden bridge I do remember,
Was built of famous oaken timber,
All but one pier in the centre,
That was built of stone and mortar.”[33]

The statement that there was one stone pier in the centre is not supported by the illustrations of the time (see later), which suggest that the pier was towards the western end of the bridge. A town plan of ‘about 1750’ does not show the stone pier, while a plan of 1752 also shows the pier in the centre. This suggests that the '1750' plan may actually be earlier than 1750.

Details of the bridge from the 1750 and 1752 plans. ( Links: 1750 plan 1752 plan )

The structure of the timber bridges

We have no physical evidence for the many timber bridges that spanned the Usk at Newport for roughly seven centuries prior to 1800, but we do have a number of 18th-century illustrations that reveal the structure of the later bridges, the earliest one by the Buck brothers (above).

Newport Bridge and Castle 1784 from "The Antiquities of England and Wales" by Francis Grose.

The view by Francis Grose[34] in 1784 shows timber trestles rising from sole-plates set in piers that are framed in timber and filled with stonework. There are cutwaters on the upstream ends and doubtless also on the downstream ends – owing to the tidal flow in the opposite direction – although these are not shown in the view. Each trestle had three massive square upright beams, with a straight shoring beam at each side engaging the end uprights roughly half-way up. Horizontal beams provided additional strength to the trestles. The road surface was carried on timbers that spanned the trestles, with a handrail at the sides. The road is better illustrated in the view by the Buck brothers (above), which also shows a considerable depth to the piers underneath the trestles.

The view by Warrington is of a similar date and shows the trestles more clearly, although not the sole-plates. There are at least 10 trestles visible and the view also shows a substantial stone pier providing additional support to the trestles towards the western end of the bridge.

Newport bridge by Mrs G.Warrington, copied from an original late 18th-century drawing by Michael Angelo Rooker (1743-1801) in the Victoria and Albert Museum.[35] Rooker was a student at the Royal Academy from 1769.[36]

A view by Sandby from a similar viewpoint also shows the stone pier, although the trestles at the western end are no longer present. This view probably post-dates the original of the view by Mrs Warrington, although the precise dates are unclear and there may also be some element of artistic licence present.

Newport Bridge and Castle late 1700s painted by Paul Sandby.
Image courtesy of Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

Another view by George Shepherd (tentatively dated c1795) shows the western end of the bridge only, with one trestle still in place between the stone pier and the western bank.[37]

Newport Bridge circa 1795 painted by George Shepherd.
Image courtesy of Newport Museum and Art Gallery.

These illustrations provide us with a good account of the structure of the bridge in its last years in the 18th century, with perhaps three phases evident.

All supports were probably trestles (Buck 1732).
A rectangular stone pier was built towards the western end, replacing some trestles and providing greater support for the aging structure (Warrington).
The trestles at the western end had been removed (Sandby 1775).

We are also fortunate that there is comparable evidence for other bridges in the area. In particular, an excavation in the riverbank at nearby Caerleon (in 2004) revealed the remains of a timber and cobble platform with a sole-plate, which had once held the trestle for a bridge that predated the present stone bridge built early in the 19th century.[39] The platform showed evidence for several phases but the structure could not be accurately dated by dendrochronology as the samples were too limited and did not match available profiles. The excavators concluded that the platform was Post-Medieval, but could have had Medieval origins. This conclusion was partly based on comparisons with other timber bridges in the area and the similarities in the design of the bridges at Caerleon, Newport and Chepstow.
Additionally, there is supporting evidence from Monmouth, where the timber predecessor of the late 13th-century Monnow Bridge was revealed as having similar characteristics to the finds at Caerleon. The 1988 excavation revealed evidence for two sole-plates, one underneath the tower pier – clearly predating the pier – and another in the riverbed underneath the arch at the Monmouth end of the bridge. The latter was an 8m long sole-plate with the familiar pattern of three upright timbers and several transverse struts, all attached with mortice and tenon joints and all of the timbers had been cut off, presumably when the stone bridge was built in the 13th century. The wood was dated by dendrochronology to a date range of 1123-1169, suggesting a construction date of up to around 1180.[40] The Monmouth example is the earliest evidence from the region for the design of the timber bridges that prevailed until the end of the 18th century.

Perhaps the strongest evidence for the regional similarity of the timber bridges comes from Chepstow, where the last timber bridge was meticulously described and recorded in Coxe’s Tour of Monmouthshire in 1801.[41] The drawings by Sir Richard Colt Hoare clearly show the piers (a platform), the trestles (a pier) and the complete structure with its details that are present at Newport, but not always clear in the views.

Views of the wooden bridge at Chepstow from Coxe's 'Tour In Monmouthshire' 1801
The eastern end of the Chepstow bridge seen by Coxe.

Chepstow bridge crosses the Wye - another tidal river on the Bristol Channel with a range of river levels comparable to Newport - and so the comparison is very apt and the importance of the Chepstow bridge described by Coxe was noted by the great Stuart Rigold in a 1975 study of Medieval timber bridges.[42] He described the bridge as:

“Perhaps the best standing image of a major bridge of about the 13th century…The final fabric was perhaps that of a reconstruction planned in 1545 but the design looks extremely conservative and fulfils all the hypothetical conditions suggested above…This strategic bridge had been built, or rebuilt, in 1234-5 with fifty of the king’s matchless oaks from Dean,[43] surely hard to replace in such quantity 300 years later. Whatever was done later it seems likely that some of its substance and its pristine shape remained…Its form was that of a normal moat bridge of gigantic structure”.

The comparison of the timber bridges of south-east Wales with the Medieval moat bridges in castles is an important link here, as this was not always the case. Earlier in the article, Rigold described the views of the later timber bridges on the Thames (at Henley, Windsor and Kingston) as being:

“…a consistent series of astonishingly crude and uncarpenterly bridges which survived to carry heavy traffic of the coaching age. They might be compared with the bridge at Ravening (Jutland), but they are utterly at variance both with the normal moat-bridges, whose trestles are based on sole-plates, and with the data upon which Essex based his reconstruction of the Rochester bridge.”

The picture that emerges from these studies is that the major timber bridges of south-east Wales display common characteristics of design that probably go back to the Medieval period and may have been constructed and repaired over time by the same teams of carpenters. The Monnow bridge at Monmouth was replaced in stone in the late-13th century, although those at Caerleon and Chepstow each survived into the 19th century, providing tantalising hints that they were derived from Medieval originals. The last bridge at Newport may be regarded as similar in design, though probably later in construction due to the extensive rebuilding programmes described above. One would give a great deal to have fuller descriptions of the Medieval bridges at Newport or the archaeological evidence for the later ones, but these are extremely unlikely to emerge. Towards the end of the 18th century the 700-year era of timber bridges in Newport was drawing to a close and the torch was passed to a new generation of bridge builders in stone. Newport’s greatest contribution to the history of bridge building was soon to unfold.

References

1 Rees, W, The Charters of the Borough of Newport (1951), XI.
2 Reeves, A.C., Newport Lordship 1317-1536 (1979), 113, citing Historia et Cartularium Monasterii Sancti Petri Gloucestriae, ed W H Hart, 3 vols, London: R. S.., 1863-7, 2: 50.
3 Reeves, A.C., (1979), 113 citing ref The Great Roll of the Pipe for the Thirty-first Year of the Reign of king Henry II, AD 1185-5, London: Pipe Roll Society, 34, (1913), 6.
4 Reeves, A.C., (1979), 113 citing Matthews, Historic Newport (1910), 131. There is no clear authority for this statement.
5 Reeves, A.C., (1979), 114 citing CChR (1300-26), p 461
6 Will of William Welsche (1361), Gwent Record Office (Item reference: D43.5491).
[URLs: http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/small/item/GTJ70576//words//14/
http://www.gtj.org.uk/en/small/item/GTJ70577//words//11/]
7 TNA SC 8/271/13532
8 Reeves, A.C., (1979), 114 citing Registrum Edmundi Lacy, Episcopi Herefordensis, 1417-1420, ed J H Parry, 1918.
9 Reeves, A.C., (1979), 114, citing PRO, SC 6/Henry VII/1665 m. 8d.
10 Jones, B.P., From Elizabeth I to Victoria: the government of Newport (Mon) 1550-1850 (1957), 193 citing NLW Bradney MS
11 Reeves, A.C., (1979), 114, Matthews (1910), 132.
12 Johns, W.N., ‘Leland’s description of Gwent in the time of Henry VIII’, Monmouthshire Medley, vol. 1, ed. Reg Nichols, Risca: Starling Press, pp 14-17.
13 Matthews, J.H. (editor) 'South Wales chantries certificate, 1548', Cardiff Records: volume 2 (1900), pp. 293-309.
[URL: http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=48128&strquery=newport bridge]
14 Jones (1957), 18 n120, citing PRO Pat Roll 833, m 18, 4 Edward VI, part 8.
15 Jones (1957), 18 n121, citing PRO E134, 17 James I, Mich. 13, mm. 3-5.
16 Jones (1957), 18 n120
17 Jones (1957), 18 n120; NLW Tredegar (4) 62/51 [of 22 July 1609]
18 Jones (1957), 17; Jones 1997: 89; NLW Tredegar (3) 56/188; NLW Tredegar (4) 63/1
19 Jones (1957), 18 citing NLW Tredegar MSS. Pt. 2, Box 63, no. 1.
20 Jones (1957), 17; Jones 1997.
21 Jones (1957), 18.
22 TNA STAC 5/M53/12
23 Jones, J, Monmouthshire Wills: Proved in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury 1560-1601 (1997), 21 citing Bradney V, 35 bridge desc by Churchyard.
24 Jones (1997), 168-9 citing Bradney V, 36.
25 Reeves A. C., Chapter VIII, ‘Newport’, in R. A. Griffiths (ed) Boroughs of Mediaeval Wales, Cardiff: University of Wales Press (1978), 203.
26 Jones (1957), 21, citing Bradney, Monmouthshire, vol. V, 35.
27 Jones (1957), 18-19
28 Gray, M & Morgan, P [eds] Gwent County Histories, vol. 3, 1536-1780 (2009), 46
29 Gray and Morgan [eds] (2009), 248, citing J K Fletcher, 'Newport in 1774, a ballad by Edward Senior of Newport’, Gwent Local History, LXXXV (1998), 52
30 NLW Tredegar (4) 59/67 [of 12 July 1791]
31 Williams 1797. This reference is unclear and needs checking.
32 Matthews (1910), 132.
33 Matthews (1910), 133.
34 Grose F. (1783) The Antiquities of England and Wales, 1st edn. London .
35 Online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_newport/397669436/in/set-72157594559794772/
36 See http://www.racollection.org.uk/ixbin/indexplus?_IXACTION_=file&_IXFILE_=templates/full/person.html&person=5871
37 Online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_newport/397669554/in/set-72157594559794772/
38 Online at http://www.flickr.com/photos/art_newport/397663908/in/set-72157594559794772/
39 Lewis online at http://www.ggat.org.uk/projects/report_archive/caerleon_bridge.html
40 Rowlands, M. L. J. (1994) Monnow Bridge and Gate, Stroud: Alan Sutton.
41 Coxe, W, (1801), An Historical Tour in Monmouthshire, London. Reprinted by Merton Press, Cardiff.
42 Rigold, S. E. ‘Structural Aspects of Medieval Timber Bridges’, Medieval Archaeology, vol XIX, 1975, pp 48-91. Online at http://ads.ahds.ac.uk/catalogue/adsdata/arch-769-1/ahds/dissemination/pdf/vol19/19_048_091.pdf
43 Citing Close Rolls, 1231-4, 456.