Bigsweir bridge and weir

Bigsweir Bridge is part of a turnpike road between Chepstow and Monmouth that had sufficient air draft to allow the many boats built on the banks of the River Wye as far upstream as Hereford to pass under. Constructed in 1827 and years ahead of it’s time, it was designed by Charles Hollis of London, made in cast iron from Merthyr Tydfil and is 164 feet (50 metres) long. In 1988 it became a Grade 2 listed structure, in 2010/11 it was repaired, strengthened and re-painted.

The New Weir upstream of Bigsweir Bridge is the limit of the Normal Tidal Limit (NTL) under the control of Gloucester Harbour Trustees, the navigation authority for this part of the River Severn and River Wye. This photograph was taken on Sunday morning 15th July 2018 at 10.30 am when the high Spring tide was at the top of its tide. This is the only time in 3 days of high Spring Tides a month that boats could could pass up the channel below and over the new weir because of the depth of water at the quay at Whitebrook where for at least two hundred years, paper was made and then transported down the River Wye by boat from its own quay about 200 meters above the New Weir, this method of transportation stopped when the railways came to the Wye Valley.