Penson’s bridge, seen here in its original state in the print from the contemporary engraving, was built in 1827, crossing the River Severn to link the town centre with its Penygloddfa suburb. The bridge of three, elegant, low elliptical arches replaced a dilapidated timber bridge. Relatively quickly, the bridge was to prove inadequate as the town grew. Penson presented his plan to widen it to a meeting of the Montgomeryshire Quarter Sessions. The Rev R.J. Davies moved the adoption of the plan, stating that ‘when the present narrow and inconvenient bridge was erected there were not more than three or four houses on the Penygloddfa side of the river; now the population of that district was at least 2,000. The whole of the lime and coal conveyed by the canal for the neighbourhoods of Llanidloes, Carno and Radnorshire passed over that bridge and in crowded times it occasioned great inconvenience to the inhabitants.’ The report of the meeting in Eddowes’s Journal, and General Advertiser for Shropshire, and the Principality of Wales on Wednesday 11th July 1855 referred to the death of a woman pedestrian two years previously caused by being crushed by a carriage – ‘and, since that time, there had been many narrow escapes from accidents’. Penson’s plan was to widen the bridge by a projecting footpath five feet wide on each side. This was accomplished by building stone work on top of the cutwaters to support cast iron arches which in turn carried cast iron plates and railings. The ironwork, as at the Brynderwen and Caerhowell bridges, was supplied by the Brymbo Company. This work was completed in 1857.

The large, grey building seen behind the bridge in the photograph was also designed by Thomas Penson as the Flannel Exchange in 1832. He was also responsible for other buildings in the town: St David’s Church (1843-7), the Market (c1850) and the Short Bridge over Green Brook a tributary of the River Severn (1823), now mostly disappeared.

Text: David Ward