Town Bridge

Town Bridge

A bascule road bridge crossing Weymouth Harbour and linking Old Weymouth with Melcombe Regis, built in 1930. The bridge features steel bascules with Portland ashlar abutments and arches, combined with coursed sandstone. The roadway is nearly level, carried on bascules to a flat segmental arch between formal abutments with square corner buttresses.

At the south end, connecting with Trinity Road, a parapet wall rises to the height of the abutments in a curved segment, with the Harbour wall sweeping round to meet it. A small platform projects to the west, and a matching platform to the east contains a set of steps within ashlar walls. The north end, leading into St Thomas Street, has a similar abutment with a pavilion for the bridge controller, followed by two low segmental arches over the quayside road with stone parapets. The eastern side is stopped to a flight of 20 steps down to Quay level. The bascule section itself carries a steel balustrade in 10 panels on each side, with a broad teak handrail.

The end abutments are finished in channelled ashlar, with square openings containing paired doors at lower level, surmounted by cornices at roadway level. The corner buttresses provide recessed embayments at pavement level and access to the control building on the north-east unit. They terminate with six prominent steel lanterns on open truncated pyramidal bases with trellis tops.

The control pavilion has a low stone weathered roof above a cornice. It is semi-octagonal on the east side, with a glazed door from the pavement and single casement windows to five outer facets, above four oculi and a door facing the water. At the St Thomas Street end, two segmental arches over the low road are in concrete cast on permanent steel shuttering, with a low connecting arch in the wall between the two throughways. Most stonework here and in the lower parts of the abutment retaining walls is in grey sandstone.

Four commemorative plaques and tablets are mounted on the bridge. On the north-west abutment in the embayment facing the pavement is a granite panel inscribed "From Weymouth New England to Weymouth in Old England: 1930". Opposite is a bronze plate recording that the bridge was opened by HRH the Duke of York on 4th July 1930, naming Bolton and Larkin Ltd as general contractors, Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Co Ltd as steelwork contractors, and RW Vince as Borough Surveyor. At the south end, a plaque to the east records the Council members for 1929/30, and opposite, a bronze plaque provides historical information about this and previous bridges, noting that the bridge was built by the Corporation with costs shared between the Borough Council, Dorset County Council, and the Ministry of Transport.

Historically, a bridge was first built here in 1597 to replace a rope ferry. It was rebuilt three times in the 18th century, with the last rebuilding in 1769 moving it from its former alignment opposite Nicholas Street to the present location. In 1821 a new permanent bridge was sought, and built in 1824. This bridge had a toll gate at the Melcombe Regis end by 1857. The 1824 bridge was replaced by the present structure.

The Town Bridge holds an important visual position in the town and has been designed to give a dignified character. It is a fine example of its type, displaying both technological and architectural virtuosity, and is of considerable historical interest to the townscape.