‘Save Rock Park Bridge (Barnstaple)’

This wonderful, much-loved wrought-iron lattice girder bridge that we so often take for granted because its been there through all our living memories, is a wonderful example of Victorian railway-era engineering and history. The North Devon (and part of the Torridge) area was significantly shaped by the railways that this bridge interconnected, and it is therefore an important part of the history of our area.

Devon County Council Highways are the custodians of this bridge which since 1987 has formed part of the Tarka Trail, and instigated a very expensive (£639,000) programme of painting to the superstructure during 2016/2017. Yet only four years later, this important icon was closed to the public for a lengthy period of time because DCC Highways had allowed the two main in-water columns to detriorate to a dangerous extent.

The DCC Highways response to this desperate state of affairs was to propose, with our county councillors enthusiastically supporting, radical measures to remove the pair of corroded in-water columns along with the two connected spans, and replace with a modern engineered span. This would have been tantamount to vandalism, and would have ruined any architectural and heritage value, and destroyed the affection held for this structure by the population of North Devon.

However, by hard work, a great deal of letter writing, meetings and community action, the bridge was preserved in its almost original design with very little of the additional support collars for the corroded columns showing above the river level. And the total reported cost by DCC Highways for the repairs amounted to £3,201,890.