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83-547: The Old Exe Bridge is a ruined medieval arch bridge in Exeter in south-western England. Construction of the bridge began in 1190, and was completed by 1214. The bridge is the oldest surviving bridge of its size in England and the oldest bridge in Britain with a chapel still on it. It replaced several rudimentary crossings which had been in use sporadically since Roman times. The project was

166-510: A common method of funding bridges in the Middle Ages. Further extensions followed in the 16th century, by which time the area of land reclaimed from the river had grown, and several of the bridge arches were on dry land. It is likely that there was little or no water flowing under the arches supporting the church by this point, except during winter floods. The church was struck by lightning in 1800 and largely rebuilt in 1834, then severely damaged in

249-505: A deck arch bridge. Any part supported from arch below may have spandrels that are closed or open. The Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Bayonne Bridge are a through arch bridge which uses a truss type arch. Also known as a bowstring arch, this type of arch bridge incorporates a tie between two opposite ends of the arch. The tie is usually the deck and is capable of withstanding the horizontal thrust forces which would normally be exerted on

332-402: A fire in 1882 and repaired the following year, though retaining much of the ancient stonework. Another fire in 1969 left the church in a ruinous state, and it was partially demolished in 1975, when most of the later additions were removed but the medieval stonework was preserved. Although ruined, the tower survives at its original height—the only intact part of the church. On the opposite side of

415-458: A greater passage for flood waters. Bridges with perforated spandrels can be found worldwide, such as in China ( Zhaozhou Bridge , 7th century). Greece ( Bridge of Arta , 17th century) and Wales ( Cenarth Bridge , 18th century). In more modern times, stone and brick arches continued to be built by many civil engineers, including Thomas Telford , Isambard Kingdom Brunel and John Rennie . A key pioneer

498-420: A local stone not quarried until the mid 14th century (approximately 150 years after the bridge was built). By 1447, the bridge was recorded as being severely dilapidated— Richard Izacke , the chamberlain of Exeter in the mid 17th century, wrote that it "was now in great decay, the stone work thereof being much foundred, and the higher part being all of timber was consumed and worn away". Shortly after this report,

581-521: A maximum of six years, rather than for life. Through the 1860s, a number of bills were debated in parliament, resulting in the passing of the Reform Act 1867 further lowered the entry requirements to be represented. As a result of the Local Government Act 1972 , Exeter lost its county borough status in 1974, and became a district council under Devon County Council . This reduced the scope of

664-461: A much wider range of people, including many (male) small landowners, shopkeepers, and householders, who had previously been disenfranchised. Prior to this, Exeter had only 586 freemen who were entitled to vote, or to site on the city council, from a population of over 28,000. The Municipal Corporations Act 1835 reformed the chamber, with the chamber increasing to 36 councillors, with a third up for election every year. Aldermen were now appointed for

747-496: A new road scheme connecting with the twin bridges. One timber-framed house became known as " the House That Moved " after it was saved from demolition and wheeled to a new position. The demolition uncovered five of the medieval arches and, after further excavation, another three and a half arches were exposed, estimated to be around half the original length of the bridge. Exeter City Council commissioned local stonemasons to restore

830-422: A pair of bridges. During construction of the twin bridges, eight and a half arches of the medieval bridge were uncovered and restored, some of which had been buried for nearly 200 years, and the surrounds were landscaped into a public park. Several more arches are buried under modern buildings. The bridge's remains are a scheduled monument and grade II listed building . Exeter was founded as Isca Dumnoniorum by

913-521: A portion of land to be reclaimed, leaving the west wall of the church above dry land. Thus, the north wall was partially demolished to allow an aisle to be added, adding 7 feet (2 metres) to the width of the church. Work on a bell tower began in 1449 after Edmund Lacey , the Bishop of Exeter , offered indulgences in exchange for financial contributions. Indulgences, in which senior clergymen offered reduced time in purgatory in exchange for acts of charity, were

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996-448: A quantity of fill material (typically compacted rubble) above the arch in order to increase this dead-weight on the bridge and prevent tension from occurring in the arch ring as loads move across the bridge. Other materials that were used to build this type of bridge were brick and unreinforced concrete. When masonry (cut stone) is used the angles of the faces are cut to minimize shear forces. Where random masonry (uncut and unprepared stones)

1079-415: A result, masonry arch bridges are designed to be constantly under compression, so far as is possible. Each arch is constructed over a temporary falsework frame, known as a centring . In the first compression arch bridges, a keystone in the middle of the bridge bore the weight of the rest of the bridge. The more weight that was put onto the bridge, the stronger its structure became. Masonry arch bridges use

1162-491: A solid base. In the shallower water closer to the banks, rubble and gravel were simply tipped onto the river bed. After part of the bridge was demolished in the 18th century, some of the piles were removed and found to be jet black and extremely solid, having been underwater for some 500 years. The size of the bridge's piers and the reclamation of land on the Exeter side reduced the width of the river by more than half, which increased

1245-430: A three-hinged bridge has hinged in all three locations. Most modern arch bridges are made from reinforced concrete . This type of bridge is suitable where a temporary centring may be erected to support the forms, reinforcing steel, and uncured concrete. When the concrete is sufficiently set the forms and falseworks are then removed. It is also possible to construct a reinforced concrete arch from precast concrete , where

1328-428: Is a masonry, or stone, bridge where each successively higher course (layer) cantilevers slightly more than the previous course. The steps of the masonry may be trimmed to make the arch have a rounded shape. The corbel arch does not produce thrust, or outward pressure at the bottom of the arch, and is not considered a true arch . It is more stable than a true arch because it does not have this thrust. The disadvantage

1411-484: Is an integral part of it; it had an entrance on the bridge and possibly a second entrance underneath. The first record of a bridge chaplain is from 1196, suggesting that the church may have already been built by that date. A record of the completed church exists from 1214, when it was mentioned in a list of churches in Exeter, along with St Thomas's Church. It had a rectangular plan, 54 feet (16 metres) long by 16 feet 6 inches (5 metres) wide. Its south wall rested on

1494-432: Is that this type of arch is not suitable for large spans. In some locations it is necessary to span a wide gap at a relatively high elevation, such as when a canal or water supply must span a valley. Rather than building extremely large arches, or very tall supporting columns (difficult using stone), a series of arched structures are built one atop another, with wider structures at the base. Roman civil engineers developed

1577-402: Is used they are mortared together and the mortar is allowed to set before the falsework is removed. Traditional masonry arches are generally durable, and somewhat resistant to settlement or undermining. However, relative to modern alternatives, such bridges are very heavy, requiring extensive foundations . They are also expensive to build wherever labor costs are high. The corbel arch bridge

1660-550: The Exeter Blitz in the Second World War. More arches were revealed during the construction of the modern bridges. The 20th-century engineers were careful to site the new bridges and their approach roads away from the line of the medieval bridge. At this time, part of Frog Street (a road on the river bank) was abandoned. During the work, an old brewery and several adjoining buildings along the street were demolished to make way for

1743-844: The Pont d'Avignon in the south of France began in the 1170s. London Bridge , over the River Thames on the opposite side of England, was begun around the same time, and was completed in 1209. Several similar bridges were constructed across England in this era, of which Exeter's, London's, and the Dee Bridge in Chester were among the largest examples. Only one other bridge of a similar age survives in Devon, at Clyst St Mary , just east of Exeter; another exists at Yeolmbridge , historically in Devon but now in Cornwall. Until

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1826-460: The Romans were – as with the vault and the dome – the first to fully realize the potential of arches for bridge construction. A list of Roman bridges compiled by the engineer Colin O'Connor features 330 Roman stone bridges for traffic, 34 Roman timber bridges and 54 Roman aqueduct bridges , a substantial part still standing and even used to carry vehicles. A more complete survey by

1909-404: The bridge chapel , was built into the bridge at the time of its construction, and St Thomas's Church was built on the riverbank at about the same time. The Exe Bridge is unusual among British medieval bridges for having had secular buildings on it as well as the chapel. Timber-framed shops, with houses above, were in place from at least the early 14th century, and later in the bridge's life, all but

1992-410: The parapets at its peak, wide enough for two carts to pass side by side—unusually wide for a medieval bridge. The parapets are lost but some of the medieval paving survives, along with other, later, paving. The surviving arches are up to 20 feet (6 metres) high. The piers are rounded in the downstream direction but feature cutwaters (streamlined brickwork intended to reduce the impact of the water on

2075-454: The 12th century, the Exe was crossed by a ford , which was notoriously treacherous and was supplemented by a ferry for foot passengers. According to John Hooker , chamberlain of Exeter, who wrote a history of the city in the 16th century (around 400 years after the bridge was built), a rudimentary timber bridge existed at the site but this was also treacherous, particularly in the winter when the river

2158-410: The 24 councillor system, eight were aldermen who were elected for life by the freemen, and only replaced upon their death, as well as fifteen common councillors. The mayor and aldermen were all magistrates and presided at trials. The chamber controlled the city corporation, which in turn ran services in the city. The passage of the Reform Act 1832 made major changes, which included giving votes to

2241-462: The Exeter turnpike trust by Act of Parliament. The trust was dissolved in 1884 and responsibility for the bridge and its estate passed to Exeter City Council . The bridge wardens kept detailed records on rolls of parchment, of which most rolls from 1343 to 1711 survive, forming the most complete set of records for a bridge in Britain except those for London Bridge. The bridge estate grew to a considerable size. The records show that it leased 15 shops on

2324-517: The Italian scholar Vittorio Galliazzo found 931 Roman bridges, mostly of stone, in as many as 26 countries (including former Yugoslavia ). Roman arch bridges were usually semicircular , although a number were segmental arch bridges (such as Alconétar Bridge ), a bridge which has a curved arch that is less than a semicircle. The advantages of the segmental arch bridge were that it allowed great amounts of flood water to pass under it, which would prevent

2407-503: The Middle Ages, when religion was a significant part of daily life. The chapel provided travellers a place to pray or to give thanks for a safe journey, and the alms collected were often used towards the maintenance of the bridge. A church was built on the Exe Bridge, across two of the bridge arches, and dedicated to St Edmund the Martyr . The church was built with the bridge, and its structure

2490-528: The Romans in the first century CE . It became an important administrative centre for the south west of England, but travel further west (to the remainder of Devon and the whole of Cornwall ) required crossing the River Exe . At Exeter, the Exe was naturally broad and shallow, making this the lowest reliable crossing point before the river's tidal estuary. There are records of a crossing from Roman times, most likely in

2573-436: The abutments of an arch bridge. The deck is suspended from the arch. The arch is in compression, in contrast to a suspension bridge where the catenary is in tension. A tied-arch bridge can also be a through arch bridge. An arch bridge with hinges incorporated to allow movement between structural elements. A single-hinged bridge has a hinge at the crown of the arch , a two-hinged bridge has hinges at both springing points and

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2656-761: The acclaimed Florentine segmental arch bridge Ponte Vecchio (1345) combined sound engineering (span-to-rise ratio of over 5.3 to 1) with aesthetical appeal. The three elegant arches of the Renaissance Ponte Santa Trinita (1569) constitute the oldest elliptic arch bridge worldwide. Such low rising structures required massive abutments , which at the Venetian Rialto bridge and the Fleischbrücke in Nuremberg (span-to-rise ratio 6.4:1) were founded on thousands of wooden piles, partly rammed obliquely into

2739-416: The arch and the deck is known as the spandrel . If the spandrel is solid, usually the case in a masonry or stone arch bridge, the bridge is called a closed-spandrel deck arch bridge . If the deck is supported by a number of vertical columns rising from the arch, the bridge is known as an open-spandrel deck arch bridge . The Alexander Hamilton Bridge is an example of an open-spandrel arch bridge. Finally, if

2822-400: The arch is built in two halves which are then leaned against each other. Many modern bridges, made of steel or reinforced concrete, often bear some of their load by tension within their structure. This reduces or eliminates the horizontal thrust against the abutments and allows their construction on weaker ground. Structurally and analytically they are not true arches but rather a beam with

2905-422: The arch supports the deck only at the top of the arch, the bridge is called a cathedral arch bridge . This type of bridge has an arch whose base is at or below the deck, but whose top rises above it, so the deck passes through the arch. The central part of the deck is supported by the arch via suspension cables or tie bars, as with a tied-arch bridge . The ends of the bridge may be supported from below, as with

2988-586: The area is now known as St Thomas) in 1261. The church was swept away in a major flood at the beginning of the 15th century and rebuilt further away from the river. The new building, on Cowick Street, was consecrated in 1412. It underwent significant rebuilding in the 17th and 19th centuries after it was set alight during the English Civil War . The church is a grade I listed building. Bridge chapels were common on medieval bridges but secular buildings were not. Around 135 major stone bridges were built in Britain in

3071-482: The blocking of the Countess Wear and ships and boats being blocked from accessing Exeter by the river until a canal was built in the 1560s. In 1345, Edward III codified that the city be governed by 12 freemen (later increased to 24 by Henry VIII in 1509), with a purview over finance and other matters. The structure of a governing body was decided in 1497 by Henry VII , and remained unchanged until 1835. Under

3154-615: The bridge an unusually flat profile unsurpassed for more than a millennium. Trajan's bridge over the Danube featured open- spandrel segmental arches made of wood (standing on 40 m-high (130 ft) concrete piers). This was to be the longest arch bridge for a thousand years both in terms of overall and individual span length, while the longest extant Roman bridge is the 790 m-long (2,590 ft) long Puente Romano at Mérida . The late Roman Karamagara Bridge in Cappadocia may represent

3237-401: The bridge from being swept away during floods and the bridge itself could be more lightweight. Generally, Roman bridges featured wedge-shaped primary arch stones ( voussoirs ) of the same in size and shape. The Romans built both single spans and lengthy multiple arch aqueducts , such as the Pont du Gard and Segovia Aqueduct . Their bridges featured from an early time onwards flood openings in

3320-410: The bridge wardens, probably shortly after its opening, showing the outline of St Edmund's Church (or possibly the chantry chapel ) with houses on either side. The oldest known document with the seal on was addressed to the mayor of Exeter in either 1256 or 1264. The church was extended several times during the bridge's lifetime. By the end of the 14th century, accumulated silt on the Exeter side allowed

3403-511: The bridge was a smaller chantry chapel (a chapel employing a priest to pray for a given period of time after a person's death, to aid that person's passage to heaven), built for Walter Gervase and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary . Upon his death in 1257, Gervase left an endowment of 50 shillings a year for a priest to hold three services a week to pray for him, his father, and his family. The chapel continued in use until at least 1537 but

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3486-475: The bridge was built with both types of arch. The pointed arches have five ribs, each about 1 foot 6 inches (46 centimetres) wide and spaced between 3 feet (91 centimetres) and 3 feet 6 inches (107 centimetres) apart; the rounded arches have three ribs, ranging from 3 feet (91 centimetres) to 3 feet 6 inches (107 centimetres) wide and 2 feet 6 inches (76 centimetres) to 3 feet (91 centimetres) apart. Bridge chapels were common in

3569-482: The bridge's construction are not known, but construction began around 1190. Stone bridges often took two decades or more to complete in the Middle Ages, and the Exe Bridge was not complete until around 1210. Walter travelled the country soliciting donations. According to Hooker, the Gervases raised £10,000 through public donations for the construction of a stone bridge and the purchase of land which would provide an income for

3652-413: The bridge's upkeep. No records survive of the people responsible for the design and construction of the bridge. There is a record of a bridge chaplain in 1196, which W. G. Hoskins , professor of English local history, believed to mean that the bridge was at least partially built by then. It was certainly complete by 1214, when a record exists of St Edmund's Church, which was built on the bridge. The bridge

3735-454: The bridge, and over 50 other properties elsewhere in Exeter, including mills and agricultural land, all providing an income for maintenance and repairs. The wardens and their successors in the turnpike trust also collected tolls from carts using the bridge from outside the city (citizens of Exeter were exempt from the tolls). By the late 18th century, congestion around the bridge became a cause for concern. An Act of Parliament in 1773 empowered

3818-464: The council and mayoralty. The role of Mayor was granted the dignity and style of Lord Mayor by letters patent dated 1 May 2002 as the result of a competition to celebrate the Golden Jubilee of Elizabeth II. Robert Wilsford served the most terms of any mayor, serving 12 terms between 1374 and 1394. Alphred Duport was elected mayor eight times, first in 1269, and for the last time in 1284. He

3901-426: The crypt of the bridge chapel , St Edmund's Church. It spanned the river diagonally in a north-westerly direction from what is now Exeter city centre to St Thomas (now a suburb of Exeter but originally outside the city), terminating outside St Thomas's Church , which was built at around the same time. The bridge was 16 feet (5 metres) wide on average. The roadway on the bridge was about 12 feet (4 metres) wide between

3984-414: The design and constructed highly refined structures using only simple materials, equipment, and mathematics. This type is still used in canal viaducts and roadways as it has a pleasing shape, particularly when spanning water, as the reflections of the arches form a visual impression of circles or ellipses. This type of bridge comprises an arch where the deck is completely above the arch. The area between

4067-550: The earliest surviving bridge featuring a pointed arch. In medieval Europe, bridge builders improved on the Roman structures by using narrower piers , thinner arch barrels and higher span-to-rise ratios on bridges. Gothic pointed arches were also introduced, reducing lateral thrust, and spans increased as with the eccentric Puente del Diablo (1282). The 14th century in particular saw bridge building reaching new heights. Span lengths of 40 m (130 ft), previously unheard of in

4150-422: The fire was extinguished. Plans for widening the medieval bridge were considered but dismissed. The spans across the river were demolished following the completion of a new, three-arch masonry bridge by Joseph Dixon in 1778. Construction of the replacement bridge began in 1770 and suffered a major setback in 1775 when floodwaters washed away much of the part-built structure and damaged its foundations. This bridge

4233-404: The first recorded rebuilding was in 1286. By 1447 the bridge was severely dilapidated, and the mayor of Exeter appealed for funds to repair it. By the 16th century, it was again in need of repairs. Nonetheless, the bridge was in use for almost 600 years, until a replacement was built in 1778 and the arches across the river were demolished. That bridge was itself replaced in 1905, and again in 1969 by

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4316-414: The force of the water acting on the bridge, causing damage. The bridge is known to have been repaired several times throughout its life. The earliest repairs are impossible to date, but a partial collapse was recorded during a storm in 1286, and again in 1384, when several people were killed. It was rebuilt on both occasions. Later repairs can be dated by the stone used—they were made with Heavitree breccia ,

4399-580: The form of a timber bridge. No trace of any Roman bridge survives; it is likely that, once replaced, the bridge deck was simply left to degrade and any masonry supports would have been washed away by floodwaters. Bridge building was sparse in England through the Early Middle Ages (the period following the decline of the Roman Empire until after the Norman conquest of England in the late 11th century). Work on

4482-492: The grounds to counteract more effectively the lateral thrust. In China, the oldest existing arch bridge is the Zhaozhou Bridge of 605 AD, which combined a very low span-to-rise ratio of 5.2:1, with the use of spandrel arches (buttressed with iron brackets). The Zhaozhou Bridge, with a length of 167 feet (51 m) and span of 123 feet (37 m), is the world's first wholly stone open-spandrel segmental arch bridge, allowing

4565-443: The height of development, all but the six arches in the middle of the river supported buildings. They were built with their front walls resting on the parapets of the bridge and the rest of the building supported by wooden posts in the riverbed, until they were demolished in 1881. In the later 13th century, silty deposits had built up on the Exeter side of the bridge, allowing the land to be reclaimed for two buildings which backed onto

4648-443: The history of masonry arch construction, were now reached in places as diverse as Spain ( Puente de San Martín ), Italy ( Castelvecchio Bridge ) and France ( Devil's bridge and Pont Grand ) and with arch types as different as semi-circular, pointed and segmental arches. The bridge at Trezzo sull'Adda , destroyed in the 15th century, even featured a span length of 72 m (236 ft), not matched until 1796. Constructions such as

4731-424: The idea of Nicholas and Walter Gervase , father and son and influential local merchants, who travelled the country to raise funds. No known records survive of the bridge's builders. The result was a bridge at least 590 feet (180 metres) long, which probably had 17 or 18 arches, carrying the road diagonally from the west gate of the city wall across the River Exe and its wide, marshy flood plain. St Edmund's Church,

4814-473: The mayor, John Shillingford , appealed for funds to rebuild it. He approached John Kemp , the Archbishop of York , with whom he was acquainted and who was an executor of the estate of the recently deceased Henry Beaufort , the famously wealthy Bishop of Winchester . Kemp promised a contribution but the process was frustrated by Shillingford's sudden death in 1458. In 1539, one of the central arches collapsed and

4897-465: The medieval era. Most, though not all, had some form of bridge chapel either on the bridge itself or on the approach, but only 12 are documented as having secular buildings on the bridge, of which the only surviving example with buildings intact is High Bridge in Lincoln . The Exe Bridge had timber-framed houses on it from early in its life—the earliest record is of two shops, with houses above, from 1319. At

4980-547: The most central section carried buildings. As the river silted up, land was reclaimed, allowing a wall to be built from the side of St Edmund's which protected a row of houses and shops which became known as Frog Street. Walter Gervase also commissioned a chantry chapel , built opposite the church, which came into use after 1257 and continued until the Reformation in the mid-16th century. The medieval bridge collapsed and had to be partially rebuilt several times throughout its life;

5063-399: The north side (right-hand side when crossing from the Exeter side) of the bridge and its side walls rested on the cutwaters while the north wall was supported by piers rising from the riverbed which had their own cutwaters. The bridge arch below the aisle was blocked in the 17th century, showing that by that time the river did not flow under the church. A seal of the bridge was made for use by

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5146-578: The oldest existing arch bridge is the Mycenaean Arkadiko Bridge in Greece from about 1300 BC. The stone corbel arch bridge is still used by the local populace. The well-preserved Hellenistic Eleutherna Bridge has a triangular corbel arch. The 4th century BC Rhodes Footbridge rests on an early voussoir arch. Although true arches were already known by the Etruscans and ancient Greeks ,

5229-420: The oldest of these stakes came from trees felled between 1190 and 1210. The arches are a mix of Norman-style semi-circles and the pointed Gothic style . All are supported by ribbed vaults . The pointed arches became fashionable at about the same time as work started on the bridge and there was some suggestion that the variation was the result of repairs, but archaeological studies in the 20th century proved that

5312-496: The oldest with a chapel still on the bridge in Britain. As such, the bridge is a scheduled monument and a grade II listed building , providing it legal protection from modification or demolition. About half of the bridge's original length survives unburied—eight and a half arches over about 285 feet (87 metres). Another three and a half arches, spanning 82 feet (25 metres) remain buried. The visible arches vary in span from 3.7 metres (12 feet) to 5.7 metres (19 feet). Two of them form

5395-494: The piers) facing upstream. Above the cutwaters were originally triangular recesses forming refuges for pedestrians to allow carts to pass. Local trap stone was used for the faces of the arches, behind which is gravel and rubble contained within a box of wooden stakes which were driven into the ground and the riverbed. Other stones found include sandstone and limestone from East Devon, and Heavitree breccia for later repairs. Dendrochronology (tree-ring dating) has established that

5478-821: The piers, e.g. in the Pons Fabricius in Rome (62 BC), one of the world's oldest major bridges still standing. Roman engineers were the first and until the Industrial Revolution the only ones to construct bridges with concrete , which they called Opus caementicium . The outside was usually covered with brick or ashlar , as in the Alcántara Bridge . The Romans also introduced segmental arch bridges into bridge construction. The 330 m-long (1,080 ft) Limyra Bridge in southwestern Turkey features 26 segmental arches with an average span-to-rise ratio of 5.3:1, giving

5561-403: The river and fronted onto what became Frog Street. Archaeological evidence suggests that one of the two was possibly a tannery . The houses were demolished in the post-medieval era but the foundations survived. Several buildings were constructed next to the bridge on the Exeter side, protected from the river by a wall which extended from the west side of the church. Arch bridge Possibly

5644-558: The role of the Lord Mayor is to "represent, support, and promote the businesses and people of Exeter" and the incumbent officer is expected to be non-political during their period of service. London was the first city to appoint a mayor (which continues today as the Lord Mayor of London ), and this was followed in 1200 by the Mayor of Winchester . Exeter followed shortly after, and the mayoralty

5727-451: The shape of an arch. See truss arch bridge for more on this type. A modern evolution of the arch bridge is the long-span through arch bridge . This has been made possible by the use of light materials that are strong in tension such as steel and prestressed concrete. "The Romans were the first builders in Europe, perhaps the first in the world, fully to appreciate the advantages of the arch,

5810-435: The stonework, then landscaped the area around the arches into a public park to display the uncovered arches, which were in remarkably good condition, having been buried for around 200 years. The bases of several of the demolished arches survive on the riverbed, and about 25 metres (82 feet) of bridge is buried under Edmund Street and the modern bank of the Exe. What remains is the oldest surviving bridge of its size in England and

5893-519: The trustees to repair or rebuild the bridge but events overtook the planned repairs when, in December 1775, a fire broke out in the Fortune of War, a pub built on the bridge. The fire consumed the pub and a neighbouring house. The pub provided cheap accommodation to local vagrants and it was believed that upwards of 30 people may have been inside at the time of the fire; at least nine bodies were recovered after

5976-544: The vault and the dome." Mayor of Exeter The Mayor of Exeter , granted Lord Mayor of Exeter in 2002, is the Mayor of Exeter in the ceremonial county of Devon , England and is elected by and from within the councillors of the City of Exeter council . The position is the third oldest mayoralty in the United Kingdom, behind the Lord Mayor of London and Mayor of Winchester , being founded in 1200. In modern times,

6059-402: Was Jean-Rodolphe Perronet , who used much narrower piers, revised calculation methods and exceptionally low span-to-rise ratios. Different materials, such as cast iron , steel and concrete have been increasingly used in the construction of arch bridges. Stone, brick and other such materials are strong in compression and somewhat so in shear , but cannot resist much force in tension . As

6142-614: Was at least 590 feet (180 metres) long (some studies have suggested it was longer, up to 750 feet (230 metres)) and consisted of possibly 17 or 18 arches; some accounts suggest there could have been as few as 12 arches, though the number appears to have varied over time with repairs. It crossed the Exe diagonally, starting from close to the West Gate of the city walls, and continued across the marshy banks which were prone to flooding. The foundations were created using piles of timber, reinforced with iron and lead and driven in tightly enough to form

6225-412: Was built on a different alignment, just upstream from the medieval bridge and crossing on a shorter, horizontal line. By then, the marshland over which several of the medieval arches were built had been reclaimed and the river was restricted to a width of 150 feet (46 metres). The medieval arches on the Exeter bank were left intact and eventually buried or incorporated into buildings. The 19th-century bridge

6308-400: Was destroyed in 1546 during the dissolution of the monasteries . Only stone fragments from the foundations survive. According to Hooker, Gervase and his wife were buried in another chapel, attached to St Edmund's Church, in which there was a "handsome monument" to Gervase's memory. This chapel was alienated from the church during the Reformation and converted into a private house; the monument

6391-461: Was executed following his last tenure, for dereliction of duty. The Precentor of the cathedral, Walter Lechlade had been murdered in November 1283, and the culprit fled through the south gate at a time when it should have been locked. The keeper of the gate, and Duport as the responsible officer of the city, were both hanged . More recently, Rowland Glave Saunders served six terms in office, due to

6474-468: Was formed in 1200 (or as late as 1205 in some references), making it the third position of mayor created. At formation, the powers of the Mayor were extensive, with control over regulating trades including baking and brewing , as well as the markets and security of the city walls. The first mayor was Henry Rifford, who served seven terms, and 19 other mayors have served five or more terms. Roger Beynim

6557-484: Was in flood. Hooker describes how pedestrians were washed off the bridge on several occasions and swept to their deaths. A stone bridge was promoted by Nicholas and Walter Gervase, father and son and prominent local residents. The Gervases were well-off merchants. Walter was subsequently elected mayor of Exeter several times and had his parents buried in the chapel on the Exe Bridge upon their deaths (the exact dates of which are unknown); he died in 1252. The exact dates of

6640-401: Was itself demolished and replaced with a three-hinged steel arch bridge in 1905, built by Sir John Wolfe Barry , who was also responsible for London's Tower Bridge . Barry's bridge lasted about 65 years before it was demolished in favour of a pair of reinforced concrete bridges, which opened in 1969 and 1972. Parts of the medieval bridge were exposed when a German bomb exploded nearby during

6723-571: Was mayor eight times between 1302 and 1317, but during one of his terms, a dispute with Hugh de Courtenay, Earl of Devon , the feudal baron of Okehampton started after being drawn into a dispute over the fish available in the market, which resulted in Beynim discarding his livery with the Earl's crest and declaring that the Mayor of Exeter would only be answerable to the King. The recrimination from this event led to

6806-415: Was removed and defaced. Only the foundations of the chapel remained by the 19th century. At the western end of the bridge (on dry land) was St Thomas's Church, built at a similar time to the bridge. The exact date of construction is unknown, but it was dedicated to St Thomas Becket , who was canonised in 1173, and the first known record of it dates from 1191. It became the parish church for Cowick (most of

6889-412: Was repaired using stone from St Nicholas' Priory but there was still no refurbishment of the whole structure. Repairs and maintenance of the bridge were provided for from the proceeds of land bought by the Gervases at the time the bridge was built, and the funds were administered by bridge wardens. The wardens were responsible for the upkeep of the bridge until 1769, when the responsibility was passed to

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