As part of our ‘Gwent Levels Revealed’ series, join John Burrows and discover the fascinating story of Chepstow's elegant five arch iron bridge.

This talk covers the fascinating world of the Georgian and Regency iron engineers and the early railway engineers (there is much about the railways) and the wider career of John Urpeth Rastrick who designed and built Chepstow's elegant 5 arch iron bridge in 1816 (now a rare 'Grade 1' Listed Bridge) and who built the first steam locomotive to run in the USA and built steam engines with Richard Trevithick for the Peruvian silver mines and other world locations.

There is much about how the events of the Regency (1810-1820) were linked with the massive technological changes of the decade in which Chepstow Bridge was built and the works of the other great engineers involved in some way with the bridge at Chepstow – Thomas Telford, John Rennie, and Watkin George, iron master of the Cyfarthfa ironworks at Merthyr, the largest in the world at the time.

Chepstow Bridge is unique with its connections with other major events at this critically important time in the development of the UK’s and the world’s industrial economy and to developments which have significant impact on us today, 200 years later.

This is a very different talk from the Severn Bridge talk (for those who may feel ‘bridged-out’ after the talk two weeks ago!). This is more historical and as much a story of the critically important Regency decade as it is of Chepstow Bridge which was one of the structural masterpieces of that decade.  The talk analyses why Chepstow Bridge has been ignored for so long by ‘bridge writers’ and makes the case for Chepstow Bridge being a potential world heritage site.

This talk will be delivered via Zoom , so please make sure you have the latest update.

Image: Christine Watkins