The River Windrush and the bridges
About
The reason anyone comes. The Windrush rises about ten miles away near Taddington, according to the village visitor site, and was channelled through the middle of Bourton by the early sixteenth century to drive three mills. Through the village it runs beside the High Street between grass banks, clear over a gravel bed and, by the visitor site's figure, only about ten inches deep on average. Five low stone bridges cross it in the centre, and the visitor site dates them as Mill Bridge (also called Broad or Big Bridge) in 1654, High Bridge in the middle of the green in 1756, New Bridge, a road bridge given by the local benefactor George Frederick Moore, in 1911, Paynes Bridge beside it, and the Coronation footbridge opposite the Old New Inn in 1953, which replaced a wooden bridge. The ford by the Coronation bridge is still in use. On warm days children paddle and the green fills with picnics; early and late in the day it is a different, quieter place.
Photos
Highlights
- ✓Mill Bridge, the oldest of the five, dated 1654 by the village visitor site
- ✓Paddling in the shallows in summer
- ✓Mallards and trout in clear water
- ✓The green under the willows
Tips
- →Come before 10am or after 4pm on a summer weekend; the village visitor site says the earlier or later you come, the quieter it is.
- →Do not feed the ducks bread; the river is shallow and the green is busy.
- →The river is the venue for Football in the River on August Bank Holiday Monday, when the banks are packed.
