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Latitude: 50.7153 / 50°42'55"N
Longitude: -2.3971 / 2°23'49"W
OS Eastings: 372057
OS Northings: 90705
OS Grid: SY720907
Mapcode National: GBR 0ZL.0SJ
Mapcode Global: FRA 57V6.5XS
Plus Code: 9C2VPJ83+44
Entry Name: Lower Bockhampton Bridge
Listing Date: 30 June 2015
Grade: II
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1425920
ID on this website: 101425920
Location: Lower Bockhampton, Dorset, DT2
County: Dorset
Civil Parish: Stinsford
Traditional County: Dorset
Lieutenancy Area (Ceremonial County): Dorset
Church of England Parish: Stinsford St Michael
Church of England Diocese: Salisbury
Lower Bockhampton Bridge, a triple-arched road bridge dating from the early C19.
Road bridge, probably constructed in the early C19.
MATERIALS: red brick, with keystones and piers in Portland stone.
DESCRIPTION: triple-arched hump-backed bridge of three unequal spans, each having a round-headed arch. The central arch has a span of 14 feet, whilst the side spans are 10 feet wide. The Portland stone bases to the piers are raised to a point on the outer faces. The parapets, topped by rounded brick coping, curve outwards at either end. The upper eight brick courses of the parapet are slightly set back. The road continues a short distance southwards, raised on rubblestone walling, to the subsidiary bridge, which has a brick arch.
Situated at Lower Bockhampton, at the south-western extremity of the village of Stinsford, the bridge, which was probably constructed in the early C19, the bridge crosses the River Frome, with a subsidiary arch traversing a drain carrying water from the water meadows lying to the south.
Two C19 cast-iron plaques fixed to the inner face of the south parapet warn against misuse of this county bridge: one notes that the bridge is unsuitable for ‘weights beyond the ordinary traffic of the district’, whilst the other is an example of a ‘Transportation’ plate commonly fixed to bridges in Dorset during the reign of George IV, which threatened transportation for life for anyone found guilty of wilfully damaging the bridge.
Higher Bockhampton, Stinsford, was the birthplace of the novelist Thomas Hardy, who re-named Stinsford as ‘Mellstock’ in his fiction. The bridge makes an appearance in the novel ‘Under the Greenwood Tree’ (1872).
Lower Bockhampton Bridge is listed at Grade II for the following principal reasons:
* Design interest: as a small triple arched road bridge, with a subsidiary arch crossing a drain from the water meadows, dating from the early C19 and little altered; the construction combines brick and stone in a considered manner, with the parapets curving gracefully outwards towards the ends of the bridge;
* Historical interest: the C19 plaques warning against misuse of the bridge add to its interest, as does the association with Thomas Hardy, who was born at Higher Bockhampton, and mentions the bridge in his fiction.
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