Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society
Cymdeithas Hynafiaethol Sir Gaerfyrddin
Events in Winter 2006
November 2006: Lecture on The Bridges of Carmarthenshire
In November Antiquarians moved indoors for
their winter programme. The first lecture of the season was
held in the County Museum at Abergwili when a packed audience
listened to Dominic Conway speak on Carmarthenshire bridges.
In his review Dominic started with the upper reaches of the
Tywi, followed its course downstream and finally looked at bridges
on the smaller rivers in the south of the county. A selection
of his images will give some of the flavour of this interesting
lecture.
The finest bridge over the upper Tywi is Pont
Dolauhirion. It is first mentioned in 1396-7 in the Minister's
Accounts, where it is called 'the bridge of Dolhir'. Various
wooden bridges stood at the site until the existing stone bridge
was built in the 18th century. J G Wood, in his book The Principal
Rivers of Wales (1813) describes it as 'an elegant bridge of
one arch.' In August 1961, the Field magazine described Dolauhirion
as the prettiest bridge in the whole of Britain, and a South
American magazine some years ago named it as one of the twelve
most beautiful bridges in the world! It was built by Thomas
Edwards in the year 1773, at a cost of £800. Dolauhirion
has a single segmental arch with a span of 84ft and a roadway
12 ft in width. The circular openings in the haunches are a
distinctive feature of Edwards's bridges, and originated in
the Pontypridd bridge. The purpose of these is to relieve pressure
on the main structure in times of flood and to reduce weight
and relieve pressure on the arch. It seems strange to find such
a fine bridge in this out of the way location, but when built,
it was on the main coach road from Llandovery to Lampeter. Thomas
Lloyd describes it as 'The most elegant of the Edwards family
bridges … a single arch … soars from rock abutments…giving
an air of weightless grace'. Terry James pointed out to me the
initials of the late J Fred Jones, a native of Llandovery and
the chairman of the Carmarthenshire Antiquarian Society in the
1950s and curator of the museum, which he has carved on the
parapet!
Moving downstream, Dominic showed architect
R K Penson's drawing of Pont Glangwili from his survey of Carmarthenshire
bridges. It is early 19th century, a simple single arch bridge
over the Gwili, again with circular openings in the spandrels,
to relieve pressure on the arch and to act as flood openings.
Another of Penson's beautiful drawings showed
Pont Spwdwr, marked on the OS map as an antiquity. It is a scheduled
ancient monument, and is, according to Jervoise, 'by far the
most ancient bridge surviving in South Wales.' David Vaughan,
of Trimsaran, left in his will, which was proved in 1571, the
sum of 40 shillings towards the repair of this bridge. A further
20 shillings for this purpose was devised by his nephew Griffith
ap William Vaughan 16 years later. Ogilby's route from London
to St/ Davids crossed by the bridge, which he called 'Pont Spuddore'.
Pont Spwdwr has 6 pointed arches, 3 large and 3 small, but in
normal times the whole river passes through 1 arch. The remainder
serve as flood arches.
The odd name needs some explanation; Francis
Jones provided the answer: In 1795, John Thomas, Bridge Master
for the county, submitted an estimate of £9 15s 6d for
repairing Spydders Bridge, and 'the long walls from the bridge
to the Ladies Arch', and the magistrates ordered that John Rees
of Cilymaenllwyd, JP, be requested to employ persons to undertake
the work. But Rees obviously did nothing, because later in that
year the inhabitants of Llandyry were presented (and acquitted)
for not repairing the high-road from 'Nantygro on the confines
of Llangyndeyrn and Pembre' to the junction with the Kidwelly
Turnpike Road 'adjacent to the south end of Pont Rees Spwdwr'.
This would seem to explain the strange name 'Spudder's Bridge'
- Pont Rees Pwdwr (the bridge of the idle Rees).
When space allows, prospective new members are welcome to attend
events. Membership runs from January 1st.
Contact Membership Secretary Edna Dale-Jones
on edna@dale-jones.f2s.com
Back numbers of some issues of The Antiquary
are available from twells@carmarthenshire.gov.uk
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