Meeting Dave again, after too many years

I drove to Abergavenny this morning to meet my great friend of nearly fifty years, Dave Thurston. He and his wife Angie have moved from Totnes to Abergavenny to be closer to his son Jack, his wife and their kids.

It was wonderful to see them and we started with lunch close to their new flat, where Jack was able to join us. I first knew Jack when he was only one year old. Now he is a notable writer and broadcaster specialising in cycling. He has produced a series of books, 'Lost Lanes', showcasing good routes for cycling tours around Britain. Dave gave me an early Canon DSLR which was my first digital camera that I used for my very first blips. Dave worked as a photo-journalist in Asia for many years after stints in local journalism and Fleet Street.

Dave introduced me to many of his friends back in the 1970s many of whom I know to this day, so he has been important in my life. I'll have to return for another visit in a little while, hopefully with Woodpeckers.

Going home I left at 6pm and drove just a short distance from his flat down to this much modernised medieval bridge. I parked just beyond it and nipped out to grab this blip in the early evening light. 


Abergavenny Bridge was originally known as Tudor Bridge, due to the historical tradition that it was built by Jasper Tudor, Duke of Bedford, who was also Baron Abergavenny. This supports a construction date of the mid-15th century. An early 19th century tramway, which originally ran parallel to the bridge, was constructed in 1811 by William Crossley. The tramway carried the Llanvihangel Railway from the canal at Llanfoist. In the mid-19th century the bridge and the tramway were combined.

The bridge was the subject of two paintings by J. M. W. Turner dating from the 1790s. The first, Abergavenny Bridge, Monmouthshire, Clearing Up after a Showery Day, is held in the collection of the Victoria and Albert Museum.The second, entitled Abergavenny Bridge, is held by The Tate but is not exhibited due to deterioration of the paintwork. 

The bridge has seven voussoired arches and cutwaters below. The parapets were rebuilt in the 20th century, and have flat coping stones. It is a Grade II* listed building and a Scheduled Monument.