Five Arch Bridge At Ngr St 2695 2533

The Five Arch Bridge is a disused railway bridge over the River Tone, built in 1863 by Company Engineer Francis Fox. It features squared and irregularly coursed punched lias with Bath stone dressings. The bridge has a five arch span with shallow arches and rusticated archivolts. The piers rest on boat-shaped pontoons in the river, supported by raking abutments. There are regular projections above the water level on the piers, though some are broken off. It has a flat string course and flat coping, both made of Bath stone, with the coping partly missing on the east side. At the time of the survey in April 1984, both ends of the bridge were obscured by ivy. The outer arches span the bank, likely due to the later embankment of the river. This bridge once carried the branch line of the Bristol and Exeter Railway Company to Chard, which closed in 1962.