CHAP. V. TELFORD A CHURCH BUILDER. 331 



judge of merit in the lower as well as the higher depart- 

 ments of a profession in which no kind or degree of 

 practical knowledge is superfluous." l 



The first bridge designed and built under Telford's 

 superintendence was one of no great magnitude, across the 

 river Severn at Montford, about four miles west of Shrews- 

 bury. It was a stone bridge of three elliptical arches, one 

 of 58 feet and two of 55 feet span each. The Severn at 

 that point is deep and narrow, and its bed and banks are 

 of alluvial earth. It was necessary to make the founda- 

 tions very secure, as the river is subject to high floods ; 

 but this was effectually accomplished by means of coffer- 

 dams. The building was substantially executed in red 

 sandstone, and proved a very serviceable bridge, forming 

 part of the great high road from Shrewsbury into Wales. 

 It was finished in the year 1792. 



In the same year we find Telford engaged as an archi- 

 tect in preparing the designs and superintending the 

 construction of the new parish church of St. Mary Mag- 

 da len at Bridgenorth. It stands at the end of Castle 

 Street, near to the old ruined fortress perched upon the 

 bold red sandstone bluff on which the upper part of the 

 town is built. The situation of the church is very fine, 

 and an extensive view of the beautiful vale of the Severn 

 is obtained from it. Telford' s design is by no means 

 striking ; " being," as he said, " a regular Tuscan eleva- 

 tion ; the inside is as regularly Ionic : its only merit is 

 simplicity and uniformity ; it is surmounted by a Doric 

 t< > \ver, which contains the bells and a clock." A graceful 

 Gothic church would have been more appropriate to the 

 situation, and a much finer object in the landscape ; but 

 Gothic was not then in fashion only a mongrel mixture 

 of many styles, without regard to either purity or grace- 

 fulness. The church, however, proved comfortable and 



1 Telford's * Autobiography,' p. 3. 



