Tarr Steps: An Ancient ‘Clapper Bridge’ inward Somerset

In the lonely moors of Devon in addition to inwards other upland areas of the Great Britain , the ancient people had built rock bridges past times placing large apartment slabs of stones over piles of stones , without mortar or cement , to cross narrow streams. These bridges are called glossa bridges. The advert is derived from the Anglo-Saxon discussion “cleaca” which agency “bridging the stepping stones” , suggesting that the starting fourth dimension glossa bridges powerfulness convey been rock slabs set across the hap of existing stepping stones. Most glossa bridges were built during the medieval times , although about of them historic menses much much more.

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Photo credit: j.e.mcgowan/Flickr

One of the around famous glossa span is Tarr Steps , located inwards the Exmoor National Park , inwards Somerset , across the River Barle. It is likewise the longest glossa span inwards Great Britain amongst 17 spans in addition to measurement 55 meters inwards length.The span lies rattling depression inwards the H2O , less than a meter over the river’s normal H2O level. Over the final century , the river has silted thus much that during inundation it ofttimes flows over the stones. Several times inwards recent years , the slabs of stones , which weigh upward to 2 tons each , convey been washed upward to fifty meters downstream. The span was repaired each time.

The historic menses of Tarr Steps is unknown amongst several theories claiming that it dates from the Bronze Age , exactly others set them around 1400 AD. According to local legend , the Devil himself built it thus that he could sunbath on. H5N1 to a greater extent than elaborate story says that the Devil never fully completed edifice the span , because his apron strings broke in addition to he dropped the stones he was carrying. The Devil thus denounced devastation on the starting fourth dimension brute to company across , thus the villagers sent a truthful cat across. The pitiful brute was torn to pieces. The parson thus crossed the span without price , in addition to traded insults amongst the Devil.

The Tar Steps has been a tourist attraction for at to the lowest degree 2 hundred years.

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