A clapper bridge is an ancient form of bridge

Bridge

A bridge is a structure built to span physical obstacles such as a body of water, valley, or road, for the purpose of providing passage over the obstacle...

 found on the moors of Devon

Devon

Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...

 (Dartmoor

Dartmoor

Dartmoor is an area of moorland in south Devon, England. Protected by National Park status, it covers .The granite upland dates from the Carboniferous period of geological history. The moorland is capped with many exposed granite hilltops known as tors, providing habitats for Dartmoor wildlife. The...

 and Exmoor

Exmoor

Exmoor is an area of hilly open moorland in west Somerset and north Devon in South West England, named after the main river that flows out of the district, the River Exe. The moor has given its name to a National Park, which includes the Brendon Hills, the East Lyn Valley, the Vale of Porlock and ...

) and in other upland areas of the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 including Snowdonia

Snowdonia

Snowdonia is a region in north Wales and a national park of in area. It was the first to be designated of the three National Parks in Wales, in 1951.-Name and extent:...

 and Anglesey

Anglesey

Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...

. It is formed by large flat slabs of granite

Granite

Granite is a common and widely occurring type of intrusive, felsic, igneous rock. Granite usually has a medium- to coarse-grained texture. Occasionally some individual crystals are larger than the groundmass, in which case the texture is known as porphyritic. A granitic rock with a porphyritic...

 or schist

Schist

The schists constitute a group of medium-grade metamorphic rocks, chiefly notable for the preponderance of lamellar minerals such as micas, chlorite, talc, hornblende, graphite, and others. Quartz often occurs in drawn-out grains to such an extent that a particular form called quartz schist is...

 supported on stone piers (across rivers), or resting on the banks of streams.

History

Although often credited with prehistoric origin, most were erected in medieval times, and some in later centuries. They are often situated close to a ford

Ford (crossing)

A ford is a shallow place with good footing where a river or stream may be crossed by wading or in a vehicle. A ford is mostly a natural phenomenon, in contrast to a low water crossing, which is an artificial bridge that allows crossing a river or stream when water is low.The names of many towns...

 where carts could cross. According to the Dartmoor National Park

National parks of England and Wales

The national parks of England and Wales are areas of relatively undeveloped and scenic landscape that are designated under the National Parks and Access to the Countryside Act 1949...

, the word 'clapper' derives ultimately from an Anglo-Saxon

Old English language

Old English or Anglo-Saxon is an early form of the English language that was spoken and written by the Anglo-Saxons and their descendants in parts of what are now England and southeastern Scotland between at least the mid-5th century and the mid-12th century...

 word, cleaca, meaning 'bridging the stepping stones'; the Oxford English Dictionary

Oxford English Dictionary

The Oxford English Dictionary , published by the Oxford University Press, is the self-styled premier dictionary of the English language. Two fully bound print editions of the OED have been published under its current name, in 1928 and 1989. The first edition was published in twelve volumes , and...

gives the intermediate Medieval Latin form clapus, claperius, "of Gaulish origin", with an initial meaning of "a pile of stones".

Examples

A fine example, the Postbridge Clapper Bridge (illustration, left), can be found at Postbridge

Postbridge, Devon

Postbridge is a hamlet in the heart of Dartmoor in the English county of Devon. It is situated on the B3212, roughly midway between Princetown and Moretonhampstead....

, on Dartmoor. Its slabs are over four metres (13 ft) long, two metres (6 ft 6 in) wide and weigh over eight tons each, making the bridge passable to a small cart. It was first recorded in 1380 and was built to facilitate the transportation of Dartmoor tin

Dartmoor tin-mining

The Dartmoor tin mining industry is thought to have originated in pre-Roman times, and continued right through to the 20th century. From the 12th century onwards tin mining was regulated by a Stannary Parliament which had its own laws....

 by pack horses to the stannary

Stannary

The word stannary is historically applied to:*A tin mine, especially in Cornwall or Devon, South West England*A region containing tin works *A chartered entity comprising such a region, its works, and its workers...

 town of Tavistock.

Other surviving examples include the Tarr Steps

Tarr Steps

The Tarr Steps are a prehistoric clapper bridge across the River Barle in the Exmoor National Park, Somerset, England. They are located in a National Nature Reserve about south east of Withypool and north west of Dulverton....

 over the River Barle

River Barle

The River Barle runs from the Chains on northern Exmoor, in Somerset, England to join the River Exe at Exebridge, Devon. The river and the Barle Valley are both designated as biological Site of Special Scientific Interest....

 in Exmoor.

Some larger clapper bridges, such as at Dartmeet

Dartmeet

Dartmeet is a popular tourist spot in the centre of Dartmoor, Devon, England at .It lies at the end of the B3351 road, about east of Two Bridges. From here, the road continues eastwards as a minor road with restrictions on the size of vehicles, past Poundsgate and over Holne Bridge and New Bridge...

 and Bellever

Bellever

Bellever is a hamlet in Dartmoor, Devon, England. It is located on the river East Dart about south of Postbridge.The first mention of a settlement at this location is in a Duchy of Cornwall record from 1355 which gives the name of a farm here as Welford,...

, have collapsed – their slabs swept away by floods, or raided for building or wall construction. However, there are many other smaller examples in existence on Dartmoor and still in use, such as those at Teignhead Farm (close to Grey Wethers

Grey Wethers

Grey Wethers consists of a pair of prehistoric stone circles, situated on grassy plateau to the north of Postbridge, Dartmoor, in the United Kingdom....

 stone circles), Scorhill and across the Wallabrook stream.

While the term "clapper bridge" is typically associated with the United Kingdom, other "clapper-style" bridges exist throughout the world. One example is the Anping Bridge

Anping Bridge

Anping Bridge is a stone beam bridge in China's Fujian province. It is long. The bridge is also known as the Wuli Bridge because its length is about 5 li, where a li is about 500 meters or 0.3 miles...

in China, which is over two kilometres long.

External links