New Bridge, built 1520, stands over the River Tamar at Gunnislake, linking Devon and Cornwall. It’s ‘new’ in comparison to Horse Bridge, built 1437, about 4 miles up river, and Greystone Bridge, built 1439, about 10 miles up river, all of which still carry traffic.
New Bridge is the lowest (closest to the sea) and most southerly crossing over the River Tamar, excluding the massive suspension bridge, built 1962, about 12 miles down river, to carry the A38 over the estuary between Plymouth and Saltash.
New Bridge is located in a valley that provided 50% of the world’s arsenic in the nineteenth century. It’s a beauty spot now and part of the Cornwall and West Devon Mining Landscape World Heritage Site.
Horse Bridge, built 1437, is the oldest bridge over the River Tamar. An excellent piece of infrastructure that has withstood seven centuries of weather, flood, and war, and still faithfully carries people and vehicles over the River Tamar, between Devon and Cornwall.
New Bridge, Horse Bridge, and Greystone Bridge, were all associated with the medieval Tavistock Abbey and probably served a dual purpose linked to fisheries, (structures for nets survive on Horse Bridge). Although Tavistock Abbey was destroyed in Henry VIII’s Dissolution of the Monasteries, the bridges survive as very solid connections to medieval England.