The bridge at Llandeilo crosses the Tywi River in a single 145ft span. It was constructed between 1843 and 1848, begun by Morgan Morgan and Thomas Jenkins, and completed by Edward Haycock. Its construction was supervised by William Williams. It is stone built with an elliptical headed arch and is 26ft wide. It replaced an earlier bridge (NPRN 23978), and although the original intention was to source the stone from nearby qurries, their defects forced Haycock to acquire stones from Cilyrychen, Llandybie. Lynn Hughes: 'The arch of the bridge is constructed with this carboniferous limestone, while the less important sections are of the Llandeilo series, and the rest of the work, in particular the approaches and the northern flood wall, near Moreb, are likely to have been salvaged from the ancient bridge.'
The total cost for the bridge's construction exceeded £12,000 which was considerably cheaper than other bridges of similar size, such as at Chester (£40,000) and Gloucester (£60,000). Antiquary George Eyre Evans commented on the Llandeilo bridge that it was 'the finest single-arch stone bridge in Wales'.
RCAHMW, April 2009
Updated by Meilyr Powel, RCAHMW. May 2021.
Source
Lynn Hughes, 'Llandeilo Bridge - History', Carmarthenshire Life, November 2004.