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SP1791 : Water Orton Bridge SP1791 : Tame Bridge, Water Orton

"At Water Orton a massive stone bridge, having six semicircular arches with chamfered arch-rings, crosses the River Tame. The total span is 45 yards and the width between the parapets is slightly over 10 feet. Over each cutwater is a recess for foot-passengers. John Harman, Bishop of Exeter, who held the manor of Sutton Coldfield, built bridges at Water Orton and at Curdworth early in the 16th century. The latter has been replaced by one built of brick, but it is possible that the present bridge at Water Orton may be the one he made. It is unusual, however, to find a 16th-century bridge with round arches, but on the other hand there appears to be no record of the rebuilding of this bridge. A former bridge was the subject of an indulgence, for forty days, granted by Reginald Bowlers in 1459."

E. Jervoise, The ancient bridges of mid and eastern England (Architectural Press, 1932), pp. 38-9.

Pevsner agrees that this is probably the bridge built by Bishop Harman in 1520.