Bow Bridge, Iwood

The name "Bow" is a cognate of the Welsh word bwa ([ˈbuː.a]) "arch", both being derived from the Old English boga, "bow" (as in bow and arrow) or "arch".^[2][3] In West Country dialect, a "bow" is a name for a stone arched bridge that spans a river or rhyne.^[4]: 3 A "bow" can also refer to a river abruptly changing course (as in oxbow lake).^[5]: 12

The bridge has been dated to the early 19th century but a more precise date has proved difficult to ascertain. Gradiometry and resistivity surveys at Iwood have found little evidence of mediaeval occupation.^[6]: 35 Furthermore, before 1814, there is an absence of cartography, apart from John Jacob de Wilstar's survey of lands for Queen Elizabeth's Hospital in 1739, that documented a limited number of land owners.^[7]: 6 However, the bridge does appear on the 1814 Congresbury enclosure map on lands held by Benjamin Thayer, a farmer at Iwood Farm, that had been occupied in the 18th century by James Wreach.^[8][6]: 35 In particular, the bridge is shown crossing Thayer's land north of the river at the River Ground (number 1586 on the 1839 tithe map),^[6]: 7 to pasture land on the south (number 1785 on the tithe map).^[9]: 5–6

On 26 March 1810, Young Sturge and James Staples, the Commissioners of Enclosure for Congresbury, Wick St. Lawrence, and Puxton,^[10]: 126 invited tenders from builders and masons to build a bridge in the Great or New Moor, over the Congresbury Yeo.^[11][b] Edward Lukins, a mason at Yatton,^[13] won the tender, and together with Thayer, signed contracts with the commissioners on 23 April 1810.^[14] The contract value was £280 (equivalent to £25,100 in 2023),^[14] a substantial sum when compared to average agricultural wages at the time of around £30 per year.^[15] In total, the Congresbury enclosure improved, or caused to be built, 398 bridges and gates, at a cost of £1,314 (equivalent to £117,800 in 2023).^[10]: 126 These enclosure costs were a burden for many landowners as they often had to sell part of their land, and less commonly, mortgage other properties, to meet the expenses imposed by the commissioners.^[16]: 236 Thayer farmed the land around the bridge until his death on Christmas Day 1860,^[17] and on 20 February 1861, the farm and lands were sold at auction.^[18]

The bridge is constructed from local stone with a single span arch of approximately 5.5 metres (18 feet). The single-coursed stone parapet is low in height and consists of a row of voussoirs.^[8] An unmetalled farm track traverses the top of the bridge.^[9]: 6 On 26 October 2007, the bridge was designated as a Grade II listed building by Historic England as it is a "substantially intact late-C18 or early-C19 bridge over the River Yeo ... [and] possesses strong group value with other bridges of a similar date and style."^[8] The bridge can be reached from a public footpath running along the north bank of the Congresbury Yeo,^[9]: 4 in close proximity to two other Grade II listed bridges to the east and southeast of Congresbury,^[9]: 6 namely Collins Bridge and Bridge over River Yeo.^[19][20]

View from the north bank

Unmetalled track

Voussoirs that make up the stone parapet

Bow Bridge over the Congresbury Yeo