Bridgwater

Incorporation and rebellions

During the 13th century Second Barons' War against Henry III, Bridgwater was held by Roger Mortimer, first Baron Mortimer against the King.^[15] Bridgwater's peasants under Nicholas Frampton took part in the Peasants' Revolt of 1381, sacking Sydenham House, murdering the local tax collectors and destroying the records.^[16]

Bridgwater was incorporated by charter of Edward IV (1468),^[1] confirmed in 1554, 1586, 1629 and 1684. Parliamentary representation as a borough constituency began in 1295 and continued until 1870, when the original borough constituency was disenfranchised for corruption;^[17] from 4 July 1870 the town was incorporated within the county constituency of West Somerset. When parliamentary seats were redistributed for the 1885 general election, a new county division of Bridgwater was created.^[18] A variety of markets were granted to the town during the Middle Ages including a Midsummer fair (on 24 June), one at the beginning of Lent was added in 1468, and one at Michaelmas.^{[19][20][21][22][23]} The importance of these markets and fairs for the sale of wool and wine, and later of cloth, declined after medieval times. The shipping trade of the port revived after the construction of the new dock in 1841, and corn and timber have been imported for centuries.^[24]

In the English Civil War the town and the castle were held by the Royalists under Colonel Edmund Wyndham, a personal acquaintance of the King.^[25] British history might have been very different had his wife, Lady (Crystabella) Wyndham, been a little more accurate with a musket shot that missed Oliver Cromwell but killed his aide de camp.^[26] Eventually, with many buildings destroyed in the town, the castle and its valuable contents were surrendered to the Parliamentarians on 21 July 1645. The castle itself was deliberately destroyed (slighted) the following year, while in 1651 Colonel Wyndham made arrangements for Charles II to flee to France following the Battle of Worcester.^[24]

Following the restoration of the monarchy, in 1663 the non-conformist Reverend John Norman, vicar from 1647 to 1660, was one of several 'religious fanatics' confined to their homes by Lord Stawell's militia. A large religious meeting house, thought to have been Presbyterian, was demolished and its furniture burned on the Cornhill in 1683.^[27] By 1688, matters had calmed down enough for a new chapel, Christ Church, to be founded in Dampiet Street, the congregation of which became Unitarian in 1815.^[28][27]

In the 1685 Monmouth Rebellion, the rebel Duke of Monmouth was proclaimed King on the Cornhill in Bridgwater and in other local towns. He eventually led his troops on a night-time attack on the King's position near Westonzoyland. Surprise was lost when a musket was accidentally discharged, and the Battle of Sedgemoor resulted in defeat for the Duke. He was later beheaded at the Tower of London, and nine locals were executed for treason.^[24][29][30]

Industrial expansion

The Chandos Glass Cone was built in 1725 as a glasswork firing kiln by James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos as part of an industrial development. After a short period of use for glassmaking it was converted for the production of pottery, bricks and tiles, which continued until 1939. The majority of the brickwork cone was demolished in 1943. The bottom 2.4 metres (7 ft 10 in) has been preserved and scheduled as an ancient monument.^[31][32][33]

Bridgwater became the first town in Britain to petition the government to ban slavery, in 1785.^[34]

In 1896, the trade unionists of Bridgwater's brick and tile industry were involved a number of strikes. The government sent troops to the town to clear the barricades by force after the reading of the Riot Act.^[35]

Twentieth century and after

Journalist Vernon Bartlett was elected Member of Parliament in the 1938 by-election 1938. He stood as an independent candidate with an anti-Hitler campaign and campaigned against the Government's policy of appeasement.^[36]

In World War II the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal formed part of the Taunton Stop Line, designed to prevent the advance of a German invasion. Pillboxes can still be seen along its length. The first bombs fell on Bridgwater on 24 August 1940, destroying houses on Old Taunton Road, and three men, three women and one child were killed. Later a prisoner of war camp was established at Colley Lane, holding Italian prisoners.^[37] During the preparations for the invasion of Europe, American troops were based in the town.^[38]

The first council estate to be built was in the 1930s at Kendale Road, followed by those at Bristol Road. The 1950s saw the start of a significant increase in post-war housebuilding, with council house estates being started at Sydenham and Rhode Lane and the former cooperative estate near Durleigh.^[39]

On 4 November 2011 West Quay alongside the River Parrett and 19 adjoining properties were evacuated after a 40 metres (130 ft) stretch of the retaining wall partially collapsed after heavy rain and flooding.^[40][41] A tidal barrier is under construction to protect around 12,800 homes, businesses and critical infrastructure from tidal flooding.^[42]

The old hospital in Salmon Parade, which was built in 1813,^[43] closed in 2014 and has been replaced with a community hospital in Bower Lane.^[44] The old hospital site has been sold for development at a price of £1.6 million, and may be turned into a hotel.^[45][46]

Climate

Along with the rest of South West England, Bridgwater has a temperate climate which is generally wetter and milder than the rest of the country.^[62] The annual mean temperature is approximately 10 °C (50.0 °F). Seasonal temperature variation is less extreme than most of the United Kingdom because of the adjacent sea temperatures. The summer months of July and August are the warmest with mean daily maxima of approximately 21 °C (69.8 °F). In winter mean minimum temperatures of 1 or 2 °C (34 or 36 °F) are common.^[62] In the summer the Azores high pressure affects the south-west of England, however convective cloud sometimes forms inland, reducing the number of hours of sunshine. Annual sunshine rates are slightly less than the regional average of 1,600 hours.^[62] Most of the rainfall in the south-west is caused by Atlantic depressions or by convection. Most of the rainfall in autumn and winter is caused by the Atlantic depressions, which is when they are most active. In summer, a large proportion of the rainfall is caused by sun heating the ground leading to convection and to showers and thunderstorms. Average rainfall is around 700 mm (28 in). About 8–15 days of snowfall is typical. November to March have the highest mean wind speeds, and June to August have the lightest winds. The predominant wind direction is from the south-west.^[62]

Industry

Bridgwater was the leading industrial town in Somerset, becoming a major manufacturing centre for clay tiles and bricks in the 19th century; including the famous Bath bricks, which were mostly used as scouring or polishing pads rather than as a construction material.^[76] These goods were exported through the port; at the peak of production some 24 million bricks were exported from Bridgwater every year from 10 manufacturers.^[77] These industries are featured in the Somerset Brick and Tile Museum on East Quay.^[78] These industries collapsed in the aftermath of World War II due to the failure to introduce mechanisation, although the automated Chilton Tile Factory, which produced up to 5 million tiles each year, lasted until 1968.^[79]

During the 19th century, Castle House (originally named Portland Castle after Portland cement), reputedly the first domestic house in the UK to be built from concrete, was constructed in 1851 by John Board, a local brick and tile manufacturer. The building is now Grade II* listed,^[80][81] It was featured in the BBC's 2004 television programme Restoration.^[82]

In the 19th century, Bridgwater was also home to a number of iron foundries. George Hennet's Bridgwater Iron Works worked on bridges, railways and machinery for Brunel and Robert Stephenson. This location allowed the import by boat of raw materials from Wales and the dispatch of finished work to south Devon using the Bristol & Exeter Railway. The carriage workshops for the latter were on an adjacent site. The works passed to his son and then traded as Hennet, Spink & Else. Some of the ironwork was produced for the Royal Albert Bridge at Saltash, Cornwall. In 1873 it became the Bridgwater Engineering Company Limited but this failed in 1878.^[83] W&F Wills Ltd produced steam engines and fingerposts.^[84]

British Cellophane, a joint venture between La Cellophane and Courtaulds opened a major factory producing cellophane in Bridgwater in 1937. The factory produced Bailey bridges during World War II for the invasion of Europe. After the war, it returned to making cellophane. The company was bought by UCB Films (now Innovia Films) in 1996 but closed in 2005.^[85]

River Parrett and its bridges

The River Parrett flows through the town. The town centre grew up on the west bank; the old part of the town on the east bank is known as Eastover.^[86] The Drove Bridge, which marks the current extent of the Port of Bridgwater, is the nearest to the mouth and the newest road bridge to cross the river. With a span of 184 feet (56 m), the bridge was constructed as part of the Bridgwater Northern Distributor road scheme (1992), and provides a navigable channel which is 66 feet (20 m) wide with 8.2 feet (2.5 m) headroom at normal spring high tides.^[87] Upstream of this is the retractable Telescopic Bridge, built in 1871 to the design of Francis Fox, the engineer for the Bristol & Exeter Railway. It carried a railway siding over the river to the docks, but had to be movable to allow boats access to and from the quays further up river. An 80-foot (24 m) section of railway track to the east of the bridge could be moved sideways, so that the main 127-foot (39 m) girders could be retracted, creating a navigable channel which was 78 feet (24 m) wide.^[88] It was manually operated for the first eight months, and then powered by a steam engine, reverting to manual operation in 1913, when the steam engine failed. The bridge was last opened in 1953, and the traverser section was demolished in 1974, but public outcry at the action resulted in the bridge being listed as a scheduled monument, and the rest of the bridge was kept.^[89][90] It was later used as a road crossing, until the construction of the Chandos road bridge alongside it, and is now only used by pedestrians. Parts of the steam engine were moved to Westonzoyland Pumping Station Museum in 1977.^[88]

The next bridge is the Town Bridge which is the limit of navigation for larger ships coming from the sea, but smaller boats can navigate along the Parrett towards Langport and onto the lower part of the River Tone.^[91] There has been a bridge here since the 13th century, when Bridgwater was granted a charter by King John. The present bridge was designed by R. C. Else and G. B. Laffan, and the 75-foot (23 m) cast iron structure was completed in 1883.^[19][92] It replaced an earlier bridge, which was the first cast iron bridge to be built in Somerset when it was completed in 1797.^[92] The stone abutments of that bridge were reused by the later bridge, which formed the only road crossing of the river in Bridgwater until 1958.^[88] Above the bridge there were two shoals, called The Coals and The Stones, which were a hazard to barge traffic on the river, and bargees had to choose carefully when to navigate the river, to ensure that there was sufficient water to carry them over these obstructions.^[93]

A new reinforced concrete road bridge, the Blake Bridge, was opened in March 1958 as part of a bypass to take road traffic away from the centre of Bridgwater.^[94] It now carries the A38 and A39 roads. On the southern edge of Bridgwater there is a bridge which carries the Bristol and Exeter Railway across the River Parrett. Isambard Kingdom Brunel designed a brick bridge, known as the Somerset Bridge, with a 100 feet (30 m) span but a rise of just 12 feet (3.7 m). Work started in 1838 and was completed in 1841. Brunel left the scaffold supporting the centre of the bridge in place as the foundations were still settling but was forced to remove it in 1843 to reopen the river for navigation. Brunel demolished the brick arch and had replaced it with a timber arch within six months without interrupting the traffic on the railway. This was in turn replaced in 1904 by a steel girder bridge.^[95][6][79]

Buildings

Bridgwater is home to the Somerset Brick and Tile Museum on East Quay which occupies a very small part of the former Barham Brothers site (brick and tile manufacturers between 1857 and 1965). The museum consists of a repaired/restored, original bottle oven and lean-to buildings; which are a scheduled monument and grade II* listed building.^{[96] [97]} The otherwise empty spaces in the buildings have been repurposed to house many of the original brick and tile moulds and handtools used by the brick and tile makers; together with advertising material and tile pattern books. On special open days, visitors - children in particular - are allowed to make and decorate small clay objects, but they can't 'fire them'. The museum will fire these items in an electric oven; and the finished items can either be collected a few days later, or on the next museum open day.^[98]

A house in Blake Street, largely restored, is believed to be the birthplace of Robert Blake in 1598, and is now the Blake Museum. It was built in the late 15th or early 16th century, and has been designated as a grade II* listed building.^[99] The Bridgwater Town Mill, originating in the Middle Ages is located at the end of Blake Street, next to the Blake Museum.^[100] A statue of Robert Blake, made by F. W. Pomeroy in 1898, is positioned in front of the Corn Exchange to face down Cornhill.^[101]

Castle House on Queen Street was built in 1851. It was one of the first buildings to make extensive use of concrete. It is also listed grade II*.^[102] For many years, since at least the 1990s, it has been empty, boarded up, listed on the Heritage at Risk Register, and held together with large bands, to stop it collapsing outwards.^{[note 4]} More recently, in November 2018, Castle House was full restored externally; awaiting a new use, a source of funding for internal restoration; and tenants.^[103] It is now occupied.

The public library in Binford place was designed by the architect, E Godfrey Page, and the oldest parts date back to 1905. It is listed as grade II.^[104] The money to build the library was provided by the American philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, so the library is 'member' of various groupings of libraries, mostly in America and perhaps a handful' in England and Wales, known as Carnegie libraries. The architectural style of this building is, was known as, Edwardian Gothic. There is a plaque on the side of the building recording the generosity of Andrew Carnegie, and the date of its formal opening by the town's Mayor, on 21 September 1906. The library was extended in 1970; and a part of the Carnegie building was damaged by fire in 1978 and needed to be restored.^[105]

Sydenham Manor House, built in the early 16th century but rebuilt after 1613, is another grade II listed building. It is currently a constituent part of the workers campus site for Hinkley Point C nuclear power station, off Bath Road.^[106]

Water

Bridgwater was part of the Port of Bristol until the Port of Bridgwater was created in 1348, covering 80 miles (130 km) of the Somerset coast line, from the Devon border to the mouth of the River Axe.^[107][4] Under an 1845 Act of Parliament the Port of Bridgwater extends from Brean Down to Hinkley Point in Bridgwater Bay, and includes parts of the River Parrett (to Bridgwater), River Brue and the River Axe.^[108]

The River Parrett was used to transport Hamstone from the quarry at Ham Hill in the medieval period.^[109] The main port on the river developed at Bridgwater where the lowest bridge was situated; the first bridge was built in 1200. Quays were built in 1424; another quay, the Langport slip, was built in 1488 upstream of the Town Bridge.^[110] A Customs House was sited at Bridgwater, on West Quay; and a dry dock, launching slips and a boat yard on East Quay.^[111] The river was navigable, with care, to Bridgwater Town Bridge by 400 to 500 tonnes (440 to 550 tons) vessels.^[112] By trans-shipping into barges at Bridgwater, goods could be carried further up the river as far as Langport and (via the River Yeo) to Ilchester. After 1827, it was also possible to transfer goods to Taunton via the Bridgwater and Taunton Canal at Huntworth.^[113] A floating harbour was constructed between 1837–1841 and the canal was extended to the harbour.^[114] The harbour area contained flour mills, timber yards and chandlers.^[114]

Shipping to Bridgwater expanded with the construction of Bridgwater Docks, and reached a peak between 1880 and 1885 with an average of 3,600 ships per year entering the port.^[114] Bridgwater also built some 167 ships; F J Carver and Son owned a small dry dock on East Quay and constructed the last ship to be built Irene which was launched in 1907.^[111]

The importance of shipping and the docks then started to decline as traffic transferred to railways and ships became too big for the port. The last commercial use of the docks was when coal imports ceased on 31 July 1971. Although ships no longer dock in the town of Bridgwater, 90,213 tonnes (99,443 tons) of cargo were handled within the port authority's area in 2006, most of which was stone products via the wharf at Dunball, mainly marine sand and gravels dredged in the Bristol Channel.^{[115] [116]} Marine sand and gravel accounted for 55,754 tonnes (61,458 tons) of the total tonnage of 90,213 tonnes (99,443 tons) using the Port facilities in 2006, with salt products accounting for 21,170 tonnes (23,340 tons) in the same year.^[115]

Somerset Council acts as the Competent Harbour Authority for the port, and has provided pilotage services for all boats over 98 feet (30 m) using the river since 1998, when it took over the service from Trinity House.^[117] Pilotage is important because of the constant changes in the navigable channel resulting from the large tidal range, which can exceed 39 feet (11.9 m) on spring tides.^[108]

Railways

Bridgwater railway station is on St John Street.^[118] It is served by Great Western Railway services between Cardiff Central, Bristol Temple Meads and Taunton. Some services continue beyond Taunton to and from Exeter St Davids or even Penzance. There are also a small number of through trains to London Paddington via Bristol temple Meads and Bath Spa.^[119]

The Bristol & Exeter Railway opened on 14 June 1841 from Bristol to Bridgwater. The railway also opened a coach and wagon works in the town; the last of the buildings was in 2005 scheduled for demolition. Bridgwater railway station, designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel is now a grade II listed building.^[120] An end to the unequal competition between rail and canal came in 1867 when the Bristol & Exeter Railway purchased the canal.^[121][122]<

Another station, the terminus of a Somerset and Dorset Joint Railway branch line from Edington was opened in 1890 but closed in 1952. It was situated where Sainsbury's supermarket is today^[123]

Road

Bridgwater can be reached by the M5 motorway. Junction 23 is at Puriton to the north of the town, and junction 24 is at Huntworth to the south. The A38 road connects the town to Bristol and Taunton, the A39 road connects with Watchet, Glastonbury and Bath. The A372 road leaves the town through Westonzoyland and continues towards Yeovil.^[124]

Bridgwater bus station is on Watson's Lane near East Quay.^[125] Most local bus services are provided by First South West^[126] but staff and community services for Hinkley Point C are contracted to Somerset Passenger Solutions.^[127] Express services operated by is served twice daily by Berrys Coaches,^[128] Flixbus^[125] and National Express^[129] call at the bus station. Megabus Falcon services call at a bus stop by the motorway junction 24.^[130]

Bridgwater carnival

The annual Bridgwater Guy Fawkes Carnival is the largest of the many West Country Carnivals. It attracts around 150,000 people from around the country and overseas. It is held on the Saturday nearest to 5 November (Guy Fawkes Night) although it was previously held on the first Thursday of November. The carnival parade follows a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) route over 2 to 3 hours and features more than 100 entries. Many of these are large vehicles (known as 'carts') up to 100 feet (30 m) long with sometimes as many as 22,000 lightbulbs. The carts carry dancers or people in static poses (known as 'tableaux') while other entrants ('masqueraders') walk around the route with the carts.^{[note 6][153]}

After the parade there is a firing of large fireworks ('squibs') in the street outside the town hall, an activity known as 'squibbing'.^[154]

Cultural references

Castle Street was used as a location in the 1963 film Tom Jones.^[155]

A sailor who had sailed 'from Bridgwater with bricks' and found 'there was lice in that bunk in Bridgwater' features in James Joyce's Ulysses.^[156]

Twinning

Bridgwater is twinned with the following towns and cities:^[157]

• Uherské Hradiště, in the Czech Republic, since 1992
• La Ciotat in France, since 1957
• Homberg, Efze in Germany, since 1992
• Marsa in Malta, since 2006
• Priverno in Italy, since 2015
• Camacha in Madeira, Portugal, since 2019

Media

Local television news programmes are BBC Points West and ITV News West Country.^[158][159]

The BBC local radio station covering Bridgwater is BBC Radio Somerset.^[160] Sedgemoor FM is a local community radio station.^[161]

Sports people

• Robert Dibble (1882–1963), international rugby player, born in Bridgwater and played for Bridgwater & Albion.^[199]
• Tommy Woods (1883–1955), rugby player, played for Bridgwater & Albion & Rochdale Hornets.^[200]
• Elizabeth Ferris (1940–2012), diver, bronze medallist, 3 metre springboard, 1960 Summer Olympics.^[201]
• Charles Kent (1953–2005), rugby player, played for Bridgwater & Albion.^[202]
• Richard Harden (born 1965), cricketer, played 253 First-class cricket games.^[203]
• David Luckes (born 1969), field hockey goalkeeper and Olympian.^[204]
• Richard Mantell (born 1981) and his brother Simon Mantell (born 1984) played field hockey for the England men's national field hockey team.^[205]
• Matthew Villis (born 1984), footballer, played over 260 games including 101 for Weston-super-Mare A.F.C..^[206]