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Over, Tewkesbury

Use British English from March 2015Villages in Gloucestershire
River Severn near Over geograph.org.uk 1081092
River Severn near Over geograph.org.uk 1081092

Over is a village in Gloucestershire, England, 2 mi (3.2 km) west of Gloucester. It lies on the A40 road in the parish of Highnam, on the west bank of the River Severn. Over was historically a hamlet of the parish of Churcham. In 1935, it was transferred to the newly formed parish of Highnam. There is some debate on the correct pronunciation of the name, with some preferring /ɒvɝ/ (oo-vurr) and others stating that it should be pronounced as /ʊ̈vɝ/ (o-vurr). The village is linked to Alney Island and Gloucester by Over Bridge, now a pedestrian bridge but until 1966 the lowest road crossing of the Severn. There was a bridge at Over, where a Roman road crossed the river, from ancient times. It was rebuilt several times, and the present bridge was built by Thomas Telford between 1826 and 1829. The River Leadon joins the River Severn just to the north of the village. The Herefordshire and Gloucestershire Canal, opened in 1795 and closed in 1881, joined the Severn between the village and the confluence of the Leadon. The canal basin at Over was restored in 2000. In 1903 a new infectious diseases hospital was opened at Over. It closed in 1991.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Over, Tewkesbury (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 51.874 ° E -2.271 °
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Address

A40
GL2 8DE , Over
England, United Kingdom
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River Severn near Over geograph.org.uk 1081092
River Severn near Over geograph.org.uk 1081092
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Nearby Places

Over Bridge
Over Bridge

Over Bridge, also known as Telford's Bridge, is a single span stone arch bridge spanning the canalised West Channel of the River Severn near Gloucester, England. It links Over to Alney Island. Although there was a crossing at Over recorded in the Domesday Book, this bridge was built by Thomas Telford between 1825 and 1828, to carry traffic east-west. It was opened in 1830 and remained in use for traffic until 1974. Until the Severn Bridge was built in the 1960s, this was the lowest point downstream that the Severn could be crossed by road bridge. The arch spans 150 ft (46 m), and was based on Jean-Rodolphe Perronet's 1774 design for a bridge over the River Seine at Neuilly. It combines both an elliptical profile over most of the soffit with a segmental profile at its faces. This feature is known as a corne de vache. When built, the arch sank by 2 in (5.1 cm) when its timber centering was removed, and another 8 in (20 cm) due to settlement of the arch foundations. Today it is a pedestrian-only bridge, and is in the guardianship of Historic England as a scheduled ancient monument. Road traffic on the A40 crosses the Severn on a new bridge alongside and upstream of it. This is the last road bridge over the Severn before the Severn Crossings, and was the most downstream free crossing until tolls were removed from the Severn Bridge and Second Severn Crossing in December 2018, although the Severn Bridge already had free access for pedestrians, cyclists and mopeds and, as previously stated, there is no vehicular access to Over Bridge. The bridge is connected by segregated bicycle paths around Alney Island, to Highnam and Gloucester. The Over Bridge can be seen from the train travelling from Gloucester on the way to Lydney or Chepstow on the Gloucester to Newport section of the former South Wales Railway.