Bristol Bridewell Bridge (The Gatehouse Record)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as;
Monken-brigge; Monk's bridge; Monken bridge

In the civil parish of Bristol.
In the historic county of Gloucestershire.
Modern Authority of Bristol; City of.
1974 county of Avon.
Medieval County of Gloucestershire.

OS Map Grid Reference: ST58887330
Latitude 51.45718° Longitude -2.59320°

Bristol Bridewell Bridge has been described as a probable Fortified Bridge.

There are no visible remains.

Comments

Bridewell was large tower complex, seemingly always a prison, on the Bristol City wall with the bridge, called Monken Bridge at that time, over the Frome in front of it. Nichols states that in 1831 the bridge had gates at both ends of it, but that on the north end doesn't seem to have been housed within a gatehouse and may just have been a bar gate to control traffic. William Wheatley's picture and other early C19 drawing do not suggest a fortified bridge but show a one span bridge over the Frome leading directly out of the city wall via a simple arch.

Sources of information, references and further reading

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s) 1007294.
Further information may be available from the holder of the county Historic Environment Record.

Websites (Gatehouse is not responsible for the content of external websites.)
- About Bristol
Books
- Lobel, M.D. and Carus-Wilson, E.M., 1975, 'Bristol' in Lobel, M.D. (ed) The Atlas of Historic Towns Vol. 2 (London: Scolar Press/Historic Towns Trust) online copy
  Nicholls, T.F. and Taylor, J., 1882, Bristol Past and Present (Bristol and London) Vol. 3 p. 329 online copy
  Nicholls, T.F. and Taylor, J., 1881, Bristol Past and Present (Bristol and London) Vol. 1 p. 64
  Seyer, A., 1821, Memoirs Historical and Topographical of Bristol and (Bristol: John Mathew Gutch) Vol. 1 p. 269-71 online copy
Primary (Medieval documents or transcriptions of such documents - This section is far from complete and the secondary sources should be consulted for full references.)
- Neale, Frances (ed), 2000, William Worcestre: The Topography of Medieval Bristol (Bristol Record Society 51) p. 27, 207, 217 online preview
Other sources: Theses; 'grey' literature; in-house reports; unpublished works; etc.
- Bruce Watson, 2013 Sept, Gazetteer of fortified bridges (working list kindly shared with Gatehouse)
  Wheatley, William, c. 1831, Bristol Riots: The Burning of Bridewell, with St Michael's Church (Bridewell Bridge) (Bristol Museum and Art Gallery) (Picture Oil on Paper) online copy

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The bibliography owes much to various bibliographies produced by John Kenyon for the Council for British Archaeology, the Castle Studies Group and others.

Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
Minor archaeological investigations, such as watching brief reports, and some other 'grey' literature is most likely to be held by H.E.R.s but is often poorly referenced and is unlikely to be recorded here, or elsewhere, but some suggestions can be found here.

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