Palladian Bridge In Grounds Of Prior Park

Palladian Bridge in grounds of Prior Park

This Grade I listed ornamental bridge crosses the waterworks at Prior Park and dates to 1755. It is constructed of limestone ashlar with a slate roof.

The bridge is designed with a wide central segmental arch flanked by smaller arches, with further arches positioned under approach steps on each side. The substructure features V-joint rustication with broad impost bands returned through the arches and plain keystones, except for the centre arch which has scrolled keystones. A weir is formed by an ashlar slab wall across all arches. The south, upstream side of the bridge has square buttressing to the section below water level.

Rising from a bold capping band, a roofed section extends through to pediments at either end, with cross-gabling to pedimented tribunes positioned over the arches on both sides. These tribunes have moulded architraves and square responds, and unfluted Ionic half-columns on pedestals at the height of the balustrades. The entablature features a pulvinated frieze carried across the set-back centre section, which is supported by four Ionic columns and responds. The centre opening is slightly wider than the others. At each end, a full-width set of steps with gentle gradients and ramped balustrades descends to wider bottom landings. These landings are defined by square piers carrying bold ball finials.

The bridge was built in 1755 by Richard Jones, clerk of works at Prior Park. It is first evidenced in Thomas Robins' 1758 view of the estate. The design is based on Palladio's famous bridge design, which had previously been adapted for bridges at Wilton in Wiltshire (1736-7) and at Stowe in Buckinghamshire (1738). The bridge forms the principal visual accent in the dramatic Prior Park landscape, which is itself Grade I listed on Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest.

Prior Park itself was developed by Ralph Allen, who purchased part of an estate between Widcombe and Combe Down in 1726, and extended it in 1728. He commissioned John Wood the Elder (1704-54) to design a new house, which was constructed between approximately 1733 and 1750. Between 1734 and approximately 1740, with advice from both Wood and Alexander Pope (1688-1744), Allen developed a formal landscape north of and below the house, together with a rococo wilderness to the north-west. This early phase included a triangular lawn north of the house descending to a formal pond, a grotto, a serpentine river with a sham bridge and cascade, a statue of Moses, and a green 'cabinet' at the foot of the cascade with artificially winding paths around it.

Wood's involvement ended in 1748 before the house was complete, and Richard Jones took over his role. In a second phase of works during the 1750s, the landscape was extended northwards and the Palladian bridge and a central cascade were introduced. A third phase followed after approximately 1760-4, when Allen employed Lancelot Brown (1716-83). Brown removed the central cascade to create a single unified sweep of the combe and further naturalized the planting.

After Allen's death in 1764, the designed landscape underwent relatively little alteration until its core was acquired by the National Trust in 1993.