25 
Bath Old Bridge and the Oratory thereon. By EMANUEL. 
GREEN, F.S.A. 
(Read 15th January, 1890.) 
The subject title here seems to divide itself into two parts, the 
Bridge and the Oratory, but for the present purpose these must 
be treated together as one. 
Although in early times Towns and Cities had their bridges 
which they kept in repair it was not so with outlying places, as a 
bridge might be seized by some powerful lord to the detriment or 
cost of all travellers. Fords too were equally liable to this 
trouble. Thus the question of the origin of early bridges is of 
interest as possibly leading to a knowledge of some curious point 
or episode in local or personal history. Any very early notice 
however can only be met with by chance. The Saxon Chronicle 
tells us that after his attack on London, A.D. 1013, King Sweyne 
went “ westward to Bath and sat there with his force.” To him 
came the western Thanes and submitted and gave him hostages. 
Whether the Thanes crossed the Avon by a bridge or by a ford 
the Chronicle is not minute enough to tell us. 
In A.D. 1138, when Bath was attacked in the time of Stephen, 
no mention is found of a bridge. Certainly this may be because 
the attack came from Bristol, and consequently the approach was 
not from the south or by the river. 
Again, Richard of Devizes, who was a Friar of Witham A.D. 
1192, records certain instructions given by a French Jew to a 
boy he was sending to England. When advising him as to the- 
desirability or advantages of certain English cities for residence, 
he says, “Bath is placed or rather buried in the lowest parts of 
“valleys, in a very dense atmosphere and sulphurous vapour, as 
“it were at the gates of hell.” There is no intimation of any 
bridge as an approach. 
On making a reference to the History of any city or town it- 
will be found that the writers say little or nothing of the bridges ;. 
