By the Rev. J. Wilkinson. 



41 



Somerset and Weymouth Railway runs through the south of the 

 parish for a distance of rather more than two miles. The Devizes 

 line (rather less than half a mile in the parish) effects a junction 

 at the western extremity. 



Among the means of communication, causeways and bridges 

 ought to be included. We have (I ought to say, we had) a " cau- 

 sey," " the street " we call it, between the common and the church. 

 It was an object of solicitude to our ancestors. The representations 

 of the homage are frequent in the court rolls. This is one of them. 

 " 1629. The causeway (via strata, vocata the causey) between the 

 marsh and Broughton Gifford church is greatly out of repair, and 

 ought to be repaired by the inhabitants of Broughton before Mi- 

 chaelmas under a penalty of 40s." The " via strata " no longer 

 deserves the name. An enterprising surveyor, some thirty years 

 since, signalised his year of office by employing the labouring poor, 

 during a slack time, in taking up some lengths of the paving stones 

 and breaking them to pieces ; consequently we have to walk in the 

 dirt. Portions remain, the energies of the surveyor having happily 

 been turned in another direction. 



Of bridges, we have two, Church bridge over the brook, and 

 Monkton bridge over the river. Of the former (under the name 

 of Parsonage bridge), I observe these entries in the court rolls. 

 "1568. It belongs to the whole village (totce [sic] villce) of 

 Broughton to repair the bridge called Parsonage bridge before the 

 feast of St. John the Baptist next, under a penalty of £10." The 

 same presentment is made, with the substitution of " all the tenants" 

 for the " whole village," 1582, 4. In 1624 there is this entry. 

 " Parsonage bridge being new built is not thoroughly finished, 

 and is to be amended by the parish." The largeness of the penalty 

 shows the importance attached to this bridge, which in fact is the 

 only direct outlet to the west. 



Our other stone bridge, Monkton, was the subject of much in- 

 quiry a few years since. The bridge was " valde in decasu" as the 

 court rolls would say, the crown of one arch having fallen in, and 

 the parapet on one whole side being down; the question arose, who 

 was to pay for the repairs ? The occupiers of the adjoining lands 



