" But
we are thinking of bridges, and Bradford has two, the earlier one
being a little footbridge by the abbey grange, now called Barton Farm.
Miss Alice Dryden tells the story of the town bridge in her _Memorials
of Old Wiltshire_. It was originally only wide enough for a string of
packhorses to pass along it. The ribbed portions of the southernmost
arches and the piers for the chapel are early fourteenth century, the
other arches were built later. Bradford became so prosperous, and the
stream of traffic so much increased, and wains took the place of
packhorses, that the narrow bridge was not sufficient for it; so the
good clothiers built in the time of James I a second bridge alongside
the first. Orders were issued in 1617 and 1621 for "the repair of the
very fair bridge consisting of many goodly arches of freestone,"
which had fallen into decay. The cost of repairing it was estimated at
200 marks. There is a building on the bridge corbelled out on a
specially built pier of the bridge, the use of which is not at first
sight evident. Some people call it the watch-house, and it has been
used as a lock-up; but Miss Dryden tells us that it was a chapel,
similar to those which we have seen on many other medieval bridges. It
belonged to the Hospital of St. Margaret, which stood at the southern
end of the bridge, where the Great Western Railway crosses the road.
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