Two Carved Figures And A Direction Stone Against North West Corner Of Petherton Bridge At Ngr St 4500 1670

SOUTH PETHERTON CP ST41NE 3/90 Two carved figures and a direction stone against north-west corner of Petherton Bridge at NGR ST 4500 1670

GV II

Two figures and a direction stone. Possibly C15 and C18. All in carved Ham stone. The figures are of a boy and a girl, about one metre high, set in a special housing at the side of the bridge: they are said to be a memorial to two children who drowned from the former decayed wooden bridge, which as a memorial to them was replaced by a 3-arch stone bridge, demolished in the early 1970s: this is thought to have been a Roman crossing point of the Fosse Way. The direction stone, now set immediately to the west, is presumably relocated from the junction of the Fossway and the old road to Yeovil; it is about 450mm x 150mm, and 600mm high, tapered with rounded top, and is inscribed on the north face 'THE RIG/(H)T HAND/ R0A(D)/ LEAD(S)/ TO YEO/(VIL)'. (Greenwood C and J, Somerset Delineated, 1822: VCH, Vol III, 1974: Bentley JB and Murless BJ, Somerset Roads, SIAS, 1985).

Listing NGR: ST4505516714