Flagstone bridge
A stone slab bridge ( English clapper bridge ; French Pont en dalle de pierre or Pont mégalithique ; Spanish Puente de piedra ) is a footbridge or a bridge that is characterized by the use of large, flat natural stone slabs as a building material, and their stability based solely on the statics stones resting on one another.
function
Stone slab walkways made it easier for people and animals to cross streams and small rivers. Due to the lack of lateral safety devices, however, animals were refused or even accidents more frequently.
construction
In narrow rivers, the 2 to 4 m long stone slabs are laid directly from one bank to the other. With wider ones, they rest on stones that rest on the bottom of the shallow waters, or on low stone pillars, mostly built using drywall construction - then such a bridge is also called a "post bridge". Usually two or three plates of approximately the same size are arranged side by side. Additional structural fixings (e.g. use of binding agents or tenon stone cutting) are atypical for the irregularly shaped bridges. If such a thing is still there, it was added later.
distribution
The bridge type only exists in areas where nature provides large stone slabs; however, this is only the case in a few areas of Europe (e.g. in the mountainous regions of Ireland , Portugal and Spain and in Brittany - e.g. in Dompierre-du-Chemin).
history
In the past, due to the simple construction and the stone material used, a prehistoric ( megalithic ) origin of the stone slab bridges was assumed, but most of them were only built in the Middle Ages or later, until the late 19th century, as part of much-used paths. They can often be found in or near a ford where carts could cross the watercourse, or in places where stepping stones were previously located.
There are no more traces of many historical stone slab bridges. Either their stones were shifted by floods over the centuries and then carried away or the stones were used as building material for houses and walls when the old bridges were replaced by more modern structures or other routes were chosen.
Examples
England, Ireland and Wales
Most of the clapper bridges - over 200 in total - can be found in Dartmoor in Devon . Further copies are u. a. in Exmoor , also in Devon, and in Snowdonia National Park and on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales . The Postbridge Clapper Bridge in Dartmoor is particularly well known for tourists . Another well-known solution, the Tarr Steps , crosses the River Barle in Exmoor .
The Postbridge Clapper Bridge in Dartmoor
The Tarr Steps bridge over the River Barle in Exmoor
Teignhead flagstone bridge over the Teign in Dartmoor
The Hall Bridge in Wycoller, Lancashire
In Ireland, clapper bridges are particularly in County Cork (Aghavrin, Ballingeary, Ballybeg Abbey, Ballymakeera, Farranamagh, Rahoonagh West); and County Kerry spread (Glen Inchiquin); a younger one is in Bunlahinch , County Mayo .
Continental Europe
Pont de Pigasse near Laguiole , Massif Central
Stone slab footbridge at Villar de Corneja , Avila , Spain
France
- Pont mégalithique from Le Châtellier Orne
- Ponts mégalithiques in Artannes-sur-Thouet, Maine-et-Loire
- Pont mégalithique von Lablachère also called Pont mégalithique du Prieuré in the Ardèche department ,
- Pont mégalithique of Eyne near Font-Romeu in the Pyrénées-Orientales department
- Pont Gaulois von Kervon , northeast of Crozon in the Finistère department
- Planque de la Fajole at Col de Verniole in the Forêt du Somail, Hérault department
- Pont de César over the Piou near the hamlet of Le Mas de Murat in the Lozère department
- Pont de Pigasse in the municipality of Laguiole , Aveyron , Midi-Pyrénées
- Pont de Pierre-Plate in Dompierre-sur-Yon Vendée
- Pont de Pierre-Plate in Dompierre-du-Chemin Brittany
- Pont Thierry or Pont romain , in Paley in the Seine-et-Marne department
Portugal
Spain (Puente Piedra)
- Villar de Corneja , Province of Avila
- Riofrío (Ávila) , Province of Ávila
- Cabeza del Caballo , Salamanca Province
- Tudera , Zamora Province
Norway
- a bridge at street 42
Sri Lanka
In the north of Sri Lanka, e.g. B. at the temple city of Anuradhapura are the Twin Ponds ("twin ponds "), near which the remains of an old flagstone bridge (Gal Palama) over the Malwathu Oya are preserved. Other bridges of this type are scattered across the country.
China
The stone slab bridges also include the Luoyang Bridge , built in the Fujian Province in China between 1053 and 1059 and covered with artistically worked slabs, and the similar Anping Bridge , built in the same province between 1138 and 1151 , which is more than two kilometers is the longest stone bridge in medieval China.
Stepping stone bridge
The stepping stone bridge , also known locally as the “ Ochsenklavier ”, is an old form of water crossing. Flat stones ( Irish clocher ) placed in the water - with narrow gaps in between, allow watercourses to be crossed. Crossings of this type are known from China, France, Ireland, Japan, Portugal and the United States.
In Switzerland (e.g. G59 1st Swiss Horticultural Exhibition in the Nymphenteich on the Zürichhorn ) and in Germany there are modern versions of the stepping stone bridges, for example in Alsfeld , Bergisch Gladbach , Bottrop , Leverkusen , Löbau and Remscheid .
Stepping stones in the Dove in Suffolk
Stepping stones on the River Rothay in the Lake District
The Stepping Stones over the Wharfe at Kettlewell in North Yorkshire .
literature
- Tom Gant: Discover Dartmoor . Baron Jay Ltd. Publishers, Plymouth 1978, ISBN 0904593061 .
- Robert Andrews: The Rough Guide to Devon & Cornwall ; Rough Guides, New York, London, Delhi, 3rd edition 2007, ISBN 978-1-84353-807-3 .
- Bernhard Graf: Bridges that connect the world. Prestel-Verlag Munich, 2002, ISBN 978-3-79132-700-6 .
Web links
- glamorganwalks.com: Clapper Bridges
- Clapper Bridge
- Image by Bellever
- Stepping stones from Cyderhall
- Step Stone Bridge from Ambleside
- Clapper bridges in County Cork - Ireland
- Image of the Clapper Bridge in Glen Inchiquin