Looe Bridge

An early wooden bridge was built across the river at Looe in {{circa|1400}}. This structure burned down in 1405.{{cite book |last1=Mikhailova |first1=Ekaterina |last2=Garrard |first2=John |title=Twin Cities across Five Continents: Interactions and Tensions on Urban Borders |date=29 November 2021 |publisher=Routledge |location=Abingdon, Oxon |isbn=978-1-000-47911-9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0mtHEAAAQBAJ |access-date=11 January 2022 |language=en}}

File:Old Bridge Marker on Quay Road, West Looe (geograph 6945617 by T Jenkinson).jpg commemorating the 1689 repairs to the old bridge|alt=A stone plaque reading REPEARED BY THE COUTY: 1689]]

The first stone bridge across the river in the town was built following a grant of 22 October 1411; construction took 25 years and was completed in 1436.{{cite web |title=Looe Bridge And St Annes Chapel |url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=77a0cbcc-7873-4cac-b935-0222b629ee61&resourceID=19191 |website=www.heritagegateway.org.uk |publisher=Heritage Gateway |access-date=11 January 2022}}{{efn|One source states that construction completed in 1411, having begun in 1405{{cite web |title=Cornwall Industrial Settlements Initiative LOOE |url=https://map.cornwall.gov.uk/reports_cornwall_industrial_settlements_initiative/Looe.pdf |publisher=Cornwall County Council |access-date=10 January 2022 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20220110211258/https://map.cornwall.gov.uk/reports_cornwall_industrial_settlements_initiative/Looe.pdf |archive-date=10 January 2022 |date=April 2002 |url-status=live }}}} Most descriptions of the bridge give its length as {{cvt|384|ft}},{{cite book |last1=Polsue |first1=Joseph |title=A Complete Parochial History of the County of Cornwall (Volume 3) |date=1870 |publisher=Lake |page=166 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MhsiAQAAIAAJ |access-date=11 January 2022}} although publication of 1847 described it as being {{cvt|423|ft}} long.{{cite book |last1=Wallis |first1=John |title=The Cornwall register, containing collections relative to the past and present state of the 209 parishes |date=1847 |page=367 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=uOcGAAAAQAAJ |access-date=11 January 2022}} Similarly disputed is the number of arches the bridge had – reports by John Leland describe either 12 or 16, The Gentleman's Magazine listed 13,{{cite journal |title=Compendium of County History |journal=The Gentleman's Magazine |date=1818 |volume=123 |page=410 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=9UBDAQAAMAAJ |access-date=11 January 2022}} Celia Fiennes referred to its 14 arches,{{cite book |last1=Fiennes |first1=Peter |title=Footnotes : a journey round Britain in the company of great writers |date=2019 |location=London |isbn=9781786076304}} William Borlase sketched{{cite web |title= LOOE - Medieval chapel, Medieval bridge

|url=https://www.heritagegateway.org.uk/Gateway/Results_Single.aspx?uid=MCO9618&resourceID=1020 |website=www.heritagegateway.org.uk |publisher=Heritage Gateway |access-date=11 January 2022}} and the National Heritage List for England states 15,{{NHLE|num=1201093|desc=

BRIDGE OVER EAST LOOE RIVER AND LAMP STANDARDS}} and Thomas Bond specified 18. The arches varied in width from {{cvt|9|–|22|ft}}; the larger spans allowed passage of timber rafts. The width of the bridge was {{cvt|6|ft|8|in}} at its narrowest and {{cvt|10|ft|3|in}} at its widest. On the centre of the bridge was a chapel dedicated to Saint Anne; the first mention of the chapel is from 18 November 1436 when the chaplain obtained a license from Edmund Lacey to hold a wedding there. It is possible that the chapel was demolished at the time of the Reformation, although some traces were reported to have still existed when the bridge was demolished. In 1689 the bridge was "in general decay", and the repairs were seen to by the county authority. Granite plaques were installed at each end of the bridge, of which the west plaque still exists.{{cite book |last1=Bond |first1=Thomas |title=Topographical and Historical Sketches of the Boroughs of East and West Looe, in the County of Cornwall |date=1823 |publisher=J. Nichols and Son |pages=9–10 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t33ZkDL3juQC |access-date=11 January 2022}}

In 1478, William of Worcester referred to the bridge as Low Brygge, and described it as maximus pons – i.e. the largest bridge in Cornwall.{{cite book |last1=Henderson|first1=Charles|last2=Coates |first2=Henry |title=Old Cornish Bridges and Streams |date=1928 |publisher=University College of the South West |pages=67–69 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=L2xLAAAAIAAJ |access-date=11 January 2022}}{{cite book |last1=Keast |first1=John |title=A history of East and West Looe |date=1987 |publisher=Phillimore |location=Chichester, Sussex |isbn=9780850336153 |page=12 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u45nAAAAMAAJ |access-date=11 January 2022}} In 1508, wealthy Cornwall merchant Thomas Yogge bequeathed a hundredweight ({{cvt|112|lb|kg|disp=or}}) of salt for repairs to the bridge, provided that the town of Loo {{sic}} brought it from Plymouth at the town's own expense.{{NHLE|num=1067152|desc=PRYSTEN HOUSE}}

A notice placed in The London Gazette in 1847 stated of an intent to apply to parliament to improve and maintain Looe Harbour, and to "take down the bridge across the said harbour, and to build a new bridge instead thereof, with proper approaches and works connected therewith, at or near the site of the present bridge".{{cite journal |title=Notices |journal=The London Gazette |date=22 October 1847 |page=4428}} The following year, the East and West Looe Harbour and Bridge Act was passed, which stated that "the present bridge across the harbour is dilapidated and ill built".{{cite web |title=East and West Looe Harbour and Bridge Act 1848 |url=https://vlex.co.uk/vid/east-and-west-looe-808413733 |website=vLex |publisher=vLex Justis |access-date=10 January 2022 |language=en}} A similar description of the old structure said that it was a "narrow time-eaten bridge [that] had become ruinous and dangerous".{{cite book |last1=Allen |first1=John |title=History of the Borough of Liskeard and Its Vicinity |date=1856 |publisher=Cash |page=403}} Conversely, a more contemporary report described it as "a very fine mediaeval bridge". Henderson and Coates suggested that had the narrowest part of the bridge been {{cvt|9|ft}} like that at Wadebridge, it would have been spared – and that it was "a thousand pities" the builders had not done so.{{cite book |last1=Harrison |first1=David |title=The Bridges of Medieval England: transport and society, 400-1800 |date=2004 |publisher=Clarendon Press |location=Oxford |isbn=9780199272747 |page=153}}

A grant for constructing a new bridge was made in 1852. Built approximately {{cvt|100|yd}} upstream of the site of the older bridge, which had been removed in 1853, the foundation stone was laid on 16 June 1854 and the new bridge opened on 4 September 1855. Designed by William Pease{{cite book |last1=Keast |first1=John |title=A history of East and West Looe |date=1987 |publisher=Phillimore |location=Chichester, Sussex |isbn=9780850336153 |page=74}} of slatestone with granite dressings, the bridge cost £2,984 ({{Inflation|GBP|2984|1854|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}}) to construct. It has nine "misshapen" arches, of which seven span the river, one is a dry arch on the East Looe side, and one at the West Looe side forms a pedestrian passage. The roadway had an original uniform width of {{cvt|18|ft|2|in}}, but underwent a programme of widening in the late 1950s and early 1960s.{{cite book |last1=Pope |first1=Rita Tregellas |title=Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly. |year=2002 |publisher=Landmark Publishing Limited |location=Ashbourne |isbn=9781843060345 |page=44 |edition=3rd}}{{cite web |title=Widening of Looe Bridge on Looe-Polperro Road, Corn |url=https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C1459296 |publisher=The National Archives |access-date=10 January 2022 |date=1958–1959}}{{cite journal |title=They Built Upon Sand |journal=Municipal Journal, Public Works Engineer Contractor's Guide |date=1960 |page=190}}

The road carried by the bridge forms part of the A387 between Polbathic and Polperro. In 1993, the bridge and its six cast iron lamp standards were given Grade II listed status.

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Category:Bridges completed in 1855

Category:Bridges in Cornwall

Category:Looe

Category:Grade II listed bridges

Category:Grade II listed buildings in Cornwall