Castle Combe bridge

Castle Combe bridge is where the street through Castle Combe ends, at the bottom of the hill, crossing the By Brook. It is a bridge of three low skew arches, rebuilt in the early nineteenth century for the Scrope family who owned the village, and it is listed Grade II.

History

The bridge was rebuilt in the early nineteenth century. The Wiltshire Community History records that the Scropes, lords of the manor for nearly five hundred years until 1866, had the bridge at the bottom of The Street completely rebuilt, and the listing dates what stands to that time.

The brook it crosses made Castle Combe. It carved the steep valley and drove the fulling mills of a medieval cloth trade: there were fulling mills on it in the Middle Ages, and Sir John Fastolf, who married into the Scrope family, bought the red and white cloth of Castle Combe to clothe his soldiers in France. Within a few years of his death in 1459 the brook's flow fell, in some summers almost to nothing, and the fullers left.

In 1962 a national newspaper called Castle Combe the prettiest village in England, and visitors followed. In the 1960s the brook was made into a fishing harbour for the film Doctor Dolittle.

What to see

Look at the east side. Four shallow ashlar buttresses stand against it, each grooved to hold an iron screen that stopped livestock from straying along the brook; the middle screen is missing, but the slots are clear. The bridge itself is rubble stone, with three low segmental arches set at a skew to the road and coped parapets.

Stand on the bridge to look upstream along the brook to the houses of the lower village, or go a little way over it to see the bridge in profile with the water below. Early morning gives the clearest view, before the visitors arrive.

Visiting

The bridge is open at all times and free. The public toilets are just south of it. The parish council says the village can be crowded in summer and on bank holidays, when the car park is likely to be full, and quieter early in the morning and late in the afternoon; winter is its favourite time to visit. The council asks for dogs to be kept under control, and on a lead where directed.

Getting there

Park in the pay-and-display car park on Dunns Lane in Upper Castle Combe, at the top of the hill; coaches may not enter the village, and the parish council asks drivers not to come down into it. From the car park, walk down The Street past the Market Cross to the bridge; it is downhill all the way, so the walk back is a climb. Faresaver buses 95 and 95A from Chippenham run a few times a day, Monday to Saturday.

On foot, the Ford, Long Dean and Castle Combe walk comes up the By Brook valley from the White Hart at Ford and crosses the bridge on its way through the village.

Nearby

The White Hart, a fourteenth-century pub on The Street, the Castle Inn and the Manor House, with its Bybrook restaurant, are all a few minutes up the hill. St Andrew's Church, with its faceless clock, is just off The Street. Downstream, the By Brook runs on to Long Dean, Ford and Slaughterford, and Biddestone's green is a short drive south. Our guide to Cotswold film and TV locations has the films shot in the village.