The first recorded bridge at Cenarth is mentioned by Giraldus Cambrensis when he visited the village in 1188 in the company of the Archbishop of Canterbury, recruiting men for the Second Crusade. An oil painting on wood in the possession of the Fitzwilliam family depicts a later bridge at Cenarth, the precursor of the present one. Much shorter, it dropped on the flat shelf of rock where the cart ruts could once be seen. But when was the present bridge built? The cylindrical holes in the present bridge provided a clue that enabled one to make an informed guess. The mid-Eighteenth Century saw a rapid growth of wheeled traffic and a consequent spate of bridge building.

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