Silly Bridge (MLN14779)

Silly Bridge is a bridge built around 1840, located in a rural landscape within the North Wessex Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The original section on the south side is constructed from local red brick, while the portion added in the 1890s on the north side uses red and purple engineering brick, laid in English bond with stone coping.

The bridge features a curved wing wall or abutment on the south side, a side arch measuring 17 feet 6 inches (5.2 meters), and a taller central arch with a span of 30 feet (9 meters). The tapered piers each support a single tapered transverse arch. The 1893 section begins with a wider north pier, from which a 26 feet 6 inches (7.9 meters) span arch springs, concluding with curved abutment or wing walls.

A straight joint clearly separates the two phases of brickwork from the foot of the northern pier to the coping, while the detailing remains consistent throughout both sections. This includes impost bands, a roll-moulded string course, the original stone coping stones reused in the 1893 section, and terminating piers. The parapets of the 1893 section step up twice towards the higher cutting on the north side. There is some patching with engineering brick on the inner faces of the parapets, and recent wire mesh fencing has been attached to the coping.