Bridgwater

Bridgwater, a municipal borough and seaport town of Somersetshire, on both sides of the Parret, 6 miles in a direct line, and 12 by the river, from the Bristol Channel, and 29 miles SW. of Bristol. It stands on the border of a plain between the Mendip and Quantock Hills, in a well-wooded country. It is chiefly built of brick, and an iron bridge connects it with the suburb of Eastover. St Mary's Church has a remarkably graceful spire, and contains a fine altar-piece. The Parret admits vessels of 700 tons up to the town; it rises 36 feet at spring-tides, and is subject to a bore or perpendicular advancing wave, 6 or 8 feet high, often causing much annoyance to shipping; a canal gives water communication with Taunton. Bath or scouring bricks, of which Bridgwater has a monopoly, are made here of a mixture of sand and clay found in the river, and there are carriage-works and potteries. Coal, grain, wine, hemp, tallow, and timber are imported; while bath-bricks, earthenware, cement, and agricultural produce are exported. The Conqueror granted the manor to one Walter de Douay, and its name thereupon became Burgh-Walter, of which Bridgwater is a mere corruption. A castle was built here in the reign of John, and an Augustinian abbey about 1230. Admiral Blake was a native of this town, which suffered severely in the civil wars, when besieged for a whole week by Fairfax, and forced to surrender, the castle being dismantled. The battle of Sedgemoor (q.v.) was fought in 1685 near Bridgwater, whose corporation had proclaimed the Duke of Monmouth as king. Bridgwater formerly returned two members to parliament, but was disfranchised in 1870. Pop. (1851) 10,317; (1891) 12,419. See the history of the town by S. J. Jarman (1889).