Old road bridge
At St Radigunds the river is also heavily managed. The old road bridge
is a major obstruction to river flow despite the arch. The projecting
stone buttress, at the river level, deflects the water from the bridge
pillars reducing pressure on the bridge. Sometimes bridges have been
known to collapse due to high pressure from flood water.
Water wheel
A mill used to be on this site and here you can see the channel and
axle of the now missing water wheel. The 'pit' in front of the water
wheel was probably created to catch stones which would otherwise damage
the water wheel. The close-up photograph shows the bottom of the pit,
and illustrates the erosive power of stones carried by the river.
The softer wood has been worn down leaving the harder metal pins projecting
by several centimetres.
Sluice gates
These sluice gates, when closed, (photograph on the left) raised the
water level, providing a greater 'head' of water to power the water
wheel. When opened, (photograph on the right) the water level dropped
allowing for repairs to the water wheel. The water level is normally
kept high to enable a small tour boat operator to run river trips
upstream of the sluice gates.
