Heniarth bridge carries the main road between Welshpool and Llanfair Caereinion over a small tributary of the River Banwy. Its main feature is its invisibility from the road in passing as it has no parapets. The bridge itself, however, is a remarkable one with the usual prominent keystones and rough-faced voussoirs but it also has an inverted arch carrying the bed of the stream under the bridge. On the downstream side there is a massive stone ledge and embankment above the string course while upstream the arch has large curved wing-walls. It was built in 1835 to replace two earlier crossings of the stream built by the turnpike trustees of two adjacent districts, one built in 1807, the other in 1811, and necessitated a re-routing of the Welshpool-Llanfair Caereinion road to form the right-angle bend seen today. The map shows the location of the existing bridge (square) together with the possible earlier routes of the two roads and the earlier bridges (circles).

Text: David Ward