The bridge over the River Blackwater at Coggeshall is known by three names locally, 'Stephen's Bridge', 'The Long Bridge' and the 'Horse River Bridge'. Although much changed over the years, this engraving of 1819 probably shows something of the bridge's appearance when first built.
Beaumont tells us that there used to be an inscription above the centre arch which showed 'the arms or badge of King Stephen and a sagittarius, a creature half man and half horse'. King Stephen reigned from 1097 - 1154 so it is has been claimed that the original bridge dates from this time. The dedication ought to have been to Stephen's wife, Maud, as it was her land which she brought to their marriage. They jointly founded Coggeshall Abbey in 1142.
The bridge was built under the direction of the monks of the Abbey at the time when they diverted the river to its present course to improve its flow into their watermill. There is evidence to suggest that the river was most likely diverted in the 1200's which would give the bridge a thirteenth century date (as favoured by the Royal Commission and John Gardner). The dedication to Stephen would then be a dedication to the founder rather than a date of construction.
The monks at Coggeshall were pioneers of brick-making and the abbey itself, St Nicholas Chapel and later, Stephen's Bridge probably use the first bricks made in England since the Romans left.
The original course of the river is the unromantically named 'Back Ditch' and is crossed by Bridge Street at the 'Short Bridge' - the 'Long Bridge' over the new channel is thus named in opposition. The back ditch once marked both the boundaries between Great and Little Coggeshall and the dioceses of St Albans and Canterbury.
As for the name 'Horse River Bridge', this may derive from the sagittarius that used to adorn the brick parapet interpreted as a horse, or more likely it refers to the practise of bringing horses to the ford to drink. The name after all refers to the river - 'Horse River' rather than the bridge (which would presumably have given us 'Horse Bridge River').
The first recorded restoration of the bridge left an inscription which Beaumont transcribed (the original also now lost): 'This bridge was repaired in the year 1705, at the cost and charge of Nehemiah Lyde esq. Lord of the manors of Great and Little Coggeshall...'.
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