Serie 2 - Bridges campaign

The survey of ancient bridges undertaken by E Jervoise in the late 1920s was prompted by the road widening schemes being drawn up by local councils to accommodate the increase in motor vehicle use. Ancient bridges had not been built to accommodate motor cars and the heavy loads of transport lorries so were threatened with demolition. Over a period of four years, Jervoise made a survey of the ancient bridges of England and Wales on behalf of the SPAB and this series of files comprises the correspondence, notebooks, photographs and survey forms compiled as part of the survey.

The survey was made river by river, following each from source to mouth, and the same order was adopted for his published books, the first of which was printed in 1930 and included bridges in counties south of the Thames excluding Devon and Cornwall which were published separately.