Bridges of Medieval England to c.1250
Stuart Brookes, Eleanor Rye, Eljas Oksanen, 2019. https://doi.org/10.5284/1053676. How to cite using this DOI
Data copyright © UCL Institute of Archaeology unless otherwise stated
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Primary contact
Dr
Stuart
Brookes
Institute of Archaeology
UCL Institute of Archaeology
31-34 Gordon Square
London
WC1H 0PY
England
Resource identifiers
- ADS Collection: 3426
- DOI:https://doi.org/10.5284/1053676
- How to cite using this DOI
Introduction
This Geographic Information Systems (GIS) database collects together information on bridges and on fording points attested in the documentary records and in archaeological surveys in England to the middle of the thirteenth century. By bringing together documentary references, archaeological material and onomastic information this database provides a comprehensive digital resource for the study of this key aspect of the medieval English transport and communications infrastructure. It is part of the Leverhulme Trust funded project 'Travel and Communications in Anglo-Saxon England' conducted at the UCL Institute of Archaeology and the Institute for Name-Studies, University of Nottingham.
Modern scholarship, including the outcomes of the Travel and Communications project, has shown that the overall shape of the pre-Modern English overland transport network was fundamentally in place by the Central Middle Ages. Any road system in a terrain and climate as wet as that of England must solve the challenges presented by the hydrological features of the landscape, and fords, bridges, causeways and ferry points were necessarily a key aspect of the experience of historical travel.
The great bulk of medieval bridge-sites and fording points in England had been established by the middle of the thirteenth century. The preceding generations had witnessed enormous economic growth and an unprecedented increase in the population. The accompanying efforts to improve the road transport infrastructure fell especially on improvements of river crossings and the construction of new bridges. In aggregate these constitute the most substantial investment made to the overland transport network between the Roman period and the turnpikes of the seventeenth century.
Bridges and river crossings anchored the English road network in space, and once established it proved remarkably durable. The medieval bridge-network appears to have been able to meet the transport requirements of the country up to the eve of the Industrial Revolution: the number of bridges in the mid-eighteenth century was approximately the same as in the Middle Ages. The building of bridges, in particular monumental stone bridges, was an economic and political statement. Bridges may have been built in response to contemporary needs but once in place they exerted a lasting influence on the shape and character of the local and regional transport network. Medieval bridges and river crossings were therefore a key long-term influence on the fundamental underpinnings of the urban, commercial and social development of the country.
The database draws upon two major sources of information: surveys of historical bridges and place-name data. Among the former Edwyn Jervoise's four-volume Ancient Bridges series (Architectural Press, 1930-6) was the first comprehensive survey of historical bridges in England and Wales, many of which date to the Middle Ages. David Harrison's The Bridges of Medieval England: Transport and Society 400-1800 (Oxford University Press, 2004) provides a modern updated study of medieval bridge building and its socio-economic importance. Their work is enormously expanded by onomastic studies. Place-names elements such as brycg "bridge, causeway" and ford "river-crossing" capture vital information on the human historical landscape that is otherwise beyond the reach of direct written or archaeological sources.
