Monument record 1682/3/6 - Stone Bridge at Kirby

{1} Possible medieval/post medieval stone bridge & causeway;

{2} Prior to its canalisation the Kirby Brook appears to have been fordable and an early crossing-point can be suggested just to the south-east of the house based upon the road pattern which is depisted by the Elizabethan surveys. The traces of an associated track or hollow-way have possibly been identified outside the boundary of the Privy Garden, which could itself date to the late sixteenth century.
The subsequent deepening of the stram-bed will have necessitated a new form of crossing which is represented by the remains of a stone bridge which survive further downstream. Apart from nineteenth-century repairs and modern consolidation, the bridge is chiefly of two phases. It probably began as a simple causeway but was later embellished with sham arches on its eastern elevation and possibly also a balustrade. Such additions can be dated to the eighteenth-century from pottery within the secondary fabric.
The bulk of the bridge lies to the north of Kirby Brook, which is still directed through a conduit that appears to have been rebuilt in the late nineteenth century, presumably after the collapse of part of the existing fabric. The leading, or western face of the bridge, is of coursed but rough-hewn masonry which was probably covered by an embankment so that only the ashlars of its parapet will have been visible. The rubble core of the causeway contains arcade-fragments of jacobean-style, such as formerly existed in the Great Garden, and other pieces may have been incorporated into the superstructure.

The better quality eatern façade, originally divied by a large central arch flanked by two pairs of smaller arches, is entirely one of cosmetic modernization. Moreover, the presence of four streamlined pontoons or cutwaters between the arches is superfluous on the downstream side, and doubly so between arches which are blind. The overall length of the refaced bridge elevation fits uneasily into its site, with the result that the southernmost arch was cut into the adjacent bank. Its voussoirs were also ineffectually keyed into the preceding structure and most of the new work simply abutted the existing core. The bridge was therefore clearly designed more for effect than utility.
The existing drain at the norhern end was incorporated into a new arch there and will have permitted the flooding of a shallow, wide pond downstream. As viewed from the ditance of the former eastern approach to the house, it would have given the impression of a small lake, crossed by a grand bridge.

<1> Ordnance Survey, 1950s/1960s, Ordnance Survey Record Cards, SP99SW1 (checked) (Index). SNN443.

<2> Dix B.; Soden I.; Hylton T., 1995, Kirby Hall and Its Gardens: Excavations in 1987-1994, p.343 (unchecked) (Report). SNN74020.

Record last edited

Aug 28 2014 5:01PM