Packhorse Bridge

The bridge is believed to date from the 15th century. It is a packhorse bridge, once common in England. Such bridges provided safer river crossings compared with fords. Medieval traders used them with pack horses (animals laden with pannier bags containing merchandise) to carry goods to market. The bridge at Hampton in Arden is on an historical route between Hampton and Kenilworth. According to the historian David Harrison, the Hampton in Arden bridge is the longest surviving packhorse bridge in England, using a definition devised by Ernest Hinchliffe in 1994 of a bridge which is under wide, built before 1800, and on a known packhorse route. Hinchliffe defines most similar bridges which do…

The bridge crosses the River Blythe between the parishes of Hampton in Arden and Berkswell. It consists of five arches, three of which are original and built from stone and two in red brick which are evidence of a later repair. The original arches are pointed (Gothic) and the later ones in segmental style. The spans of the arches vary between 9 ft and 10 ft. The bridge is narrow, less than 6 ft wide, and has a low parapet on one side and none on the other. It has substantial triangular cutwaters on the upstream side and lesser, squared cutwaters on the downstream side. One of the piers supports the base of a cross. Above the cutwaters are refuges which allow pedestrians to move out of the…