We are looking at an unusual bridge on the Stroudwater Canal, and is just a few yards away from my first house I purchase in the 1970's. My eldest Son today lives just a few yards from it as well.
The bridge was built around 1776 and then it became known as Mr. Hills Bridge, he owned the Lower Mills estate down a steep track on the left. He lived in a house on the reverse of the building you see here, which he built in 1803, and this side was a warehouse that had a hoist to lower goods down to barges on the canal, built a year later in 1804. When and why it became known as Nutshell Bridge is unknown.
When Mr, Hill died in 1816 the warehouse was altered into a dwelling with the chimneys added and date marked for 1827. This side may have been turned into a boarding house for passengers on the canal. There was even an arched tunnel running under the road/track between the house and the warehouse, this has been blocked off today.
To me this is a landmark in my childhood and also the start of my children's life, having walked over and under it hundreds of times.
A beautiful shot.