Panters Bridge

Two-span bridge, dating from the early C15 and incorporating earlier material. Closed to motor traffic by 1968.

MATERIALS: Slatestone, with some granite boulders and slabs. Dressed granite parapet copings.

DESCRIPTION: Panters Bridge spans the River Bedalder north-east to south-west with two arches, 22m long on the north side and 44.5m long on the south, varying in width from approximately 3m in the centre to 8m at the south-west end. It is constructed mainly of slatestone rubble with some granite slabs and blocks, the variations in size of the material revealing areas of later rebuild and maintenance. The arches are slightly pointed with double arch rings of slate, the inner slightly recessed. The arches spring from a low level above the riverbed, with the abutment walls carrying the bridge across both riverbanks for several metres. The central pier separating the arches has pointed cutwaters, their faces continued into the parapet as triangular refuges. The sides of the bridge rise above the carriageway as parapets, continuing above the abutments and reducing in height: the north-western parapet terminates on the abutments while that on the south-east extends to flank the approach to the bridge. The parapets vary in height and have iron-cramped granite coping slabs, some with a slight chamfer along each upper edge. The southern face of the south-west abutment incorporates an earlier abutment, visible as a wall of coursed large granite blocks sloping south-west, visible for 5.5m adjacent to the bank.