Tour Wiltshire
BEAT THE PANDEMIC, PLEASE FOLLOW THE RULES
  • Home
  • Historical Attractions and Gardens
    • Avebury Manor
    • Avebury Stones and Henge
    • Bowood House
    • Corsham Court
    • Durrington Walls and Wood Henge
    • Great Chalfield Manor
    • Heale Gardens
    • Iford Manor Gardens
    • Lacock Abbey
    • Longleat House
    • Mompesson House
    • Old Sarum
    • Old Wardour Castle
    • Salisbury Cathedral
    • Stonehenge
    • Stourhead
    • The Courts Garden
    • Westwood Manor
    • Wilton House
    • Wilton Windmill
  • Towns & Villages
    • Aldbourne
    • Ashton Keynes
    • Biddestone
    • Bishopstrow
    • Box
    • BRADFORD ON AVON
    • Bratton
    • Broad Chalke
    • Broughton Gifford
    • Castle Combe
    • CHIPPENHAM
    • Colerne
    • CORSHAM
    • CRICKLADE
    • Crockerton and Longbridge Deverill
    • DEVIZES
    • Dinton
    • Downton
    • Edington
    • Great Bedwyn
    • Grittleton
    • Heytesbury
    • Hindon
    • Horningsham
    • Imber
    • Keevil
    • Lacock
    • MERE
    • Pewsey
    • Potterne
    • SALISBURY
    • Seend
    • Sherston
    • Steeple Ashton
    • Stourton
    • Sutton Veny
    • Teffont Magna and Teffont Evias
    • Tisbury
    • TROWBRIDGE
    • Tytherington
    • WARMINSTER
    • WESTBURY
    • West Lavington
  • Also
    • Compton Abbas Airfield
    • Hope Nature Centre
    • Longleat Safari Park
  • Walks
    • Bishopstrow Walk
    • Broughton Gifford, Great Chalfield, The Courts
    • Chalke Valley
    • Harnham Water Meadows
    • Heaven's Gate
    • Kennet and Avon Canal
    • Longleat Pleasure Walk
    • Savernake Forest
    • Shearwater Lake
    • Smallbrook Meadows
    • Warminster Park
    • Westbury White Horse
    • White Sheet Lane
    • Win Green
  • Quiz
  • Wiltshire Houses
  • Contact/About

⭐⭐⭐⭐
Bradford On Avon, Wiltshire

I like Bradford On Avon for the architecture, the walk along the canal, and 'The Bridge Tea Rooms'. I don't like the constant stream of traffic through the gridlocked centre, which is why these photos were taken shortly after sunrise (or greywise, as happened) on a Sunday. Roman relics were found above the town, and a Roman mosaic floor from a villa is under a school's playing field. The eastern side of the 'Town Bridge' was built in the 13th Century by Shaftesbury Abbey for its tenant farmers to cross the River Avon, then widened to the west in the 17th Century. On the bridge is 'The Chapel'. Chapels were sometimes built on bridges, bridges often being funded by the land-owning church, with a priest or hermit to administer mass and say prayers for travellers. The earliest known reference to Bradford On Avon's bridge chapel being used as a chapel is in 1660, though medieval, original, stonework was found during restoration so it's pretty certain that it started out as a chapel and was part of the original 13th Century bridge. 'The Chapel' was rebuilt in the 17th Century as a lockup, there are two cells in it. Only six bridge chapels remain in England and only four are actualy on the bridges themselves. The wealth of Bradford on Avon, then and now, dates back to the 17th century when woolen mills sprang up, powered by the river, - many of the houses built then for wool merchants are still now expensive homes. The bridge was the scene of a small skirmish during the English Civil War when Royalists took the bridge to continue on to the nearby Battle of Lansdowne with the Parliamentarians (1643). Also, on the outskirts of Bradford On Avon, is a medieval 'Tithe Barn', one of the largest surviving in England, built around 1340 for the collection of tithes in the form of produce, from tenants of Shaftesbury Abbey.
Picture
Picture
Bridge Tea Rooms, 1502
Picture
Old Church House
Picture
Barton Farmhouse, Pound Lane, Bradford On Avon. The Farmhouse is mostly early 18th century, with projecting frontage which is 14th century.
Picture
Barton Grange Farm
Picture
Picture
Bridge Tea Rooms, 1502
Picture
St Laurence Church, maybe as early as 8th century
Picture
Barton Grange Farm
Picture
Bradford on Avon Marina
STAY SAFE AND BEAT CORONAVIRUS
by the same photographer:
Chicken Leg | Imber Village