Clapper bridge, Lower Harford

Near Lower Harford Farm, a mile south-east of Naunton in the Windrush valley, a clapper bridge crosses the water about 20m south-west of the farmhouse. It is built of flat limestone blocks laid on stone piers, of the eighteenth century or earlier, and Historic England calls it a rare survival in this region of a kind of bridge more often found in upland country. It is listed Grade II.

History

A clapper bridge is the simplest bridge there is: piers of stone set in the stream, with long slabs laid across from one to the next. They are best known on Dartmoor and in other upland country, and in the Cotswolds they are rare. Historic England's listing dates this one to the eighteenth century or earlier, with some brick put in to replace stone late in the nineteenth.

Harford and its crossings

The place takes its name from a ford over the Windrush. The Victoria County History records that the main road bridge at Harford Bridge, on the Gloucester to Stow road, existed by the sixteenth century, and the road was turnpiked in 1775. By the seventeenth century Lower Harford Farm was the only house left in the hamlet, whose medieval village was largely deserted by 1341, and from 1518 to 1958 the estate belonged to Corpus Christi College, Oxford.

The farmhouse

The farmhouse beside the bridge is listed too: a house of about 1700, remodelled in the middle of the nineteenth century, with a freestone front under a hipped slate roof. Its listing notes a surprise at the front door, a pair of carved capitals that appear to be good late eleventh-century work from south-west France or northern Spain, though the listing does not say how they came to be here.

What to see

The bridge is two courses of squared limestone blocks laid over stone piers, low to the water, with patches of later brick where stones were replaced. Look at how the slabs bridge the gaps between the piers rather than arching over them, and at the water running through the openings. Take a look across the field south of the river, too, where the humps and hollows are the deserted village.

Visiting

The bridge stands by a working farm, so look from the lane and the public path near the farm entrance rather than walking into the farmyard. It can be seen at any time, for nothing. The lane is a farm track and the path beyond crosses grass and field gates. Winter, when the vegetation is down, is the best time to see the piers.

Getting there

Park on the verge on the north side of the B4068 near Harford Bridge, about a mile south-east of Naunton. The Harford Bridge and Naunton walk starts here, goes down the lane to Lower Harford Farm and crosses the Windrush by a footbridge near the farm entrance, with the clapper bridge close by. The long walk from Bourton by the Slaughters and Naunton comes down the valley past the farm.

Nearby

Up the valley in Naunton are the Tudor dovecote, St Andrew's Church and the Black Horse pub. Downstream at Bourton-on-the-Water the same river runs under the low stone footbridges of the village green, among them the Narrow Bridge. Lords of the Manor at Upper Slaughter is the nearest place to stay.