Welsh Journals

CONTROVERSY IN ELIZABETHAN GLAMORGAN: THE REBUILDING OF CARDIFF BRIDGE by PENRY WILLIAMS IN the late sixteenth century the River Taff divided, on ap- proaching Cardiff, into two branches, of which one ran, as at present, west of Blackfriars Priory, and the other, the more easterly, flowed between the Priory and the Castle. Two bridges spanned the easterly branch of the river, one leading from the west gate of the town, the other apparently connecting the Castle with the Priory. Over the westerly branch of the river one longer bridge carried the road from Cardiff to Cowbridge. In 15 7 one of these bridges, probably the last-named, collapsed.1 The cost of rebuilding or repairing a bridge was heavy, and, although no local authority could be forced to build a bridge where none had been before, the law demanded that existing bridges be preserved. Yet it was not always easy to decide on whom the burden should be laid, for an important bridge might benefit more persons than those who lived in its vicinity. To this problem parliament had provided a simple, but not wholly equitable, answer. By the Statute 22 Henry VIII C-5 bridges within the liberties of a borough were to be maintained by the borough, bridges outside the liberties were to be maintained by the shire.2 Unfortunately this allocation did not prevent disputes. Gloucestershire and Monmouthshire, jointly responsible for Chepstow Bridge, blamed each other for its constant disrepair. Gloucestershire also resented the burden of maintaining Tewkes- bury Bridge, situated as it was on the very borders of Worcester- 1 See Speed's plan of Cardiff in 1610, reproduced and enlarged in J. H. Matthews, Records of the County Borough of Cardiff (Cardiff, 1898-1911, 6 vols.), II, pp. 8-9. 2 S. & B. Webb, English Local Government: the Story of the King's Highway (London, 1920), pp. 85-90.