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Preliminary designs and finished drawings for variant designs for Pinford Bridge, 1767, unexecuted (4)

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Pinford bridge, so called owing to its proximity to Pinford Farm, was constructed in 1769-70 at the head of Brown's lake - formed from the River Yeo - allowing a new approach to the castle to be made. Adam's designs of 1767 for the bridge were not used as the mason William Privett's estimate for its erection totalled £1560.12.10, being far too expensive. In 1768 Privett made his own design for the bridge, still with three arches but less ornamental, for which he submitted an estimate of £947.9.4. Then, finally in 1769 Privett made an estimate of £467.0.0 for a bridge design, still inspired by Adam's designs of three arches, but made by Captain Robert Digby, the third Digby brother. This final design was executed in 1769-70 by Privett, and under the superintendence of Captain Digby. Privett's three estimates, as well as Privett and Digby's designs are all preserved in the Sherborne archive, and the two drawings are illustrated in Smith's article. Sadly, the bridge no longer carries the approach to the castle, but rather a farm track.

According to King the trophies seen in Adam volume 51/19 are similar to those on James Adam's Carlton House entrance, and therefore may have been designed by him, though there is no evidence to support this. Bolton notes that Adam volume 51/19 is overly 'florid', and possibly made earlier than the other drawings.

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Sir John Soane's collection includes some 30,000 architectural, design and topographical drawings which is a very important resource for scholars worldwide. His was the first architect’s collection to attempt to preserve the best in design for the architectural profession in the future, and it did so by assembling as exemplars surviving drawings by great Renaissance masters and by the leading architects in Britain in the 17th and 18th centuries and his near contemporaries such as Sir William Chambers, Robert Adam and George Dance the Younger. These drawings sit side by side with 9,000 drawings in Soane’s own hand or those of the pupils in his office, covering his early work as a student, his time in Italy and the drawings produced in the course of his architectural practice from 1780 until the 1830s.

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Contents of Preliminary designs and finished drawings for variant designs for Pinford Bridge, 1767, unexecuted (4)