Mickla Bridge

ALVINGTON

SX Mickla Bridge 1686/0/10004 13-DEC-10

II A double clapper bridge, possibly dating from the C17 or C18, and certainly before 1830. The bridge consists of four rectangular local stone slabs, set two-by-two. One of the slabs to the south-western side is inscribed with a benchmark. The bridge is supported on mortared rubble-stone abutments curving below the bridge, and continuing a short distance along the banks of the Cone Brook to either side. The centre of the bridge is carried on a stone-rubble cutwater which tapers to either end.

HISTORY: Mickla Bridge is noted in a secondary source as possibly dating from before the Norman conquest, though without any supporting evidence; the Gloucestershire Sites and Monuments Record states that it is unlikely to be earlier than the C14. The name Mickla derives from Mickley Meadow, which is recorded in an inquisition of 1629. Mickla Bridge across the Cone Brook is mentioned as a footbridge in 1681, and it is certainly in place and named as such on an Ordnance Survey map of 1830.

SOURCES: Gloucestershire SMR Record: detail report for area 5837 (1985) Cross, AGR: Old Industrial Sites in Wyedean: a gazetteer (1982), 83 Elrington, CR and Herbert, NM: A History of the County of Gloucester (Victoria County History) Volume X (1972), 105

REASONS FOR DESIGNATION: Mickla Bridge, a pre-C19 double clapper bridge, is designated at Grade II, for the following principal reasons: * Historic interest: the bridge is a largely intact structure probably dating from the C17 or C18; a bridge is recorded here from the later C17 * Rarity: one of only six clapper bridges known in the county, and rare in this lowland context