Cotswold Canals in Pictures

Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge

Gough's Orchard Bridge carries a public footpath over the canal.  Unusually for the Thames & Severn Canal the towpath does not pass under the bridge alongside the canal.

The canal under the bridge, along with the adjacent lock, was excavated in summer 2009.

Construction

The bridge is a standard canal company pattern brick-built accommodation bridge across the tail of Gough’s Orchard Lock. The bricks are handmade and of a dark red colour, laid to a fairly irregular English bond. The bridge has a segmental arch springing from wedge-shaped stone springers and is protected by a simple projecting brick drip mould.

The wing walls are built with an inward ‘batter’ and curve outwards from the arch to end in pilaster terminals. The parapet brickwork is contiguous with that of the wing walls and spandrels rather than being of a separate construction. The parapet is level over the arch and then slopes gently down in a straight line on either side to the ends of the wing walls; it is topped by a plain stone coping.

(Tap / click images to enlarge)

 

Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge - view towards Stroud
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge - view towards Chalford
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge

Before infill Removed

Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge before infill removed - view towards Stroud
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge before infill removed
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge with railway close by
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge
Gough's Orchard Lock Bridge in 1967.
[Photo by L. Walrond, digitised by Dr R. Wilson, licensed under CC-BY-NC-SA 4.0]