Burrowbridge is a village and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated on the River Parrett and the A361 road on the edge of the Somerset Levels. It is located southeast of Bridgwater, and has a population of 508.
History
The name probably comes from the Old English buruh (fortified hill) and brycg (bridge).
In the village is Burrow Mump, an ancient earthwork now owned by the National Trust, presented by Major A.C. Barrett in 1946 as a war memorial. Burrow Mump is also known as St Michael's Borough or Tutteyate. It is a natural hill of Triassic sandstone capped by Keuper marl. Excavations showed evidence of a 12th-century masonry building on the top of the hill. The first recorded writing mentioning this site is from William of Worcestre about 1480, when he referred to it as Myghell-borough. A medieval church dedicated to St Michael from at least the mid-15th century formed a sanctuary for royalist troops in 1645. The ruins visible today are from the 18th century.
The historic area of the Isle of Athelney is located towards the western part of the village.
Prior to 1826, the bridge over the River Parrett, just below the junction with the River Tone, consisted of three arches, each only a little wider than the barges that used the river. They restricted the flow of water in times of flood and made navigation difficult. The bridge was highlighted in a report made by William Armstrong in 1824, as a factor that would prevent the River Tone Navigation from competing with the new Bridgwater and Taunton Canal, then being built. It is the longest single-span masonry road bridge in the county, and was the last toll bridge in Somerset before being 'freed' in 1946. Just below the bridge there was a shoal of rocks and stones, which was also mentioned in Armstrong's report, but no action was taken to remove it. Except on spring tides, Burrowbridge was the normal upper limit for barges riding the incoming tide. Above here, horses were used to pull the boats, either towards Langport or along the River Tone towards Taunton.
The civil parish was created in the 1980s as the result of a Local Government Boundary Commission review. Originally, what is now the civil parish area was split between five separate parishes: Stoke St Gregory in Taunton Deane, and North Petherton, Westonzoyland, Middlezoy and Othery, all in Sedgemoor district. The parish council was first elected in 1985.
It is also part of the Taunton and Wellington county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament (MP) by the first-past-the-post system of electionand was part of the South West England constituency of the European Parliament prior to Britain leaving the European Union in January 2020, which elected six MEPs using the d'Hondt method of party-list proportional representation.
People associated with Burrowbridge
- Alfred the Great