Clopton Bridge

Clopton Bridge spans the River Avon in Stratford-upon-Avon with fourteen pointed arches of masonry. It carries the A3400 road where the river was once forded in Saxon times. The present stone bridge replaced a timber structure first noted in 1235. Hugh Clopton of Clopton House paid for its construction around 1484. He later became Lord Mayor of London. John Leland called the old timber bridge small and poor, with no proper causeway. The bridge has been repaired many times. Two arches were rebuilt in 1524 after damage. Flooding in 1588 required further work. In 1642 an arch was broken to stop Oliver Cromwell’s army. Parapets were heightened in 1696 because they were dangerously low. In 1811 the bridge was widened on the upstream side and a toll house tower added in 1814. A cast-iron footbridge was attached in 1827. John Leland described the finished bridge as a great stone structure with fourteen large arches and long stone causeways. Low stone walls line both sides. The bridge remains a Grade I listed building and a scheduled monument.