It’s a devil of a bridge
QUESTION Why are three bridges built on top of each other at Pontarfynach, near Aberystwyth?
THIS is the Devil’s Bridge, across the Afon Mynach in the Vale of Rheidol, which is part of the A4120 road.
Twelve miles east of Aberystwyth, it is the site of a famous waterfall, where the River Mynach drops 300 ft in five steps down a steep and narrow ravine before it meets the River Rheidol.
A set of stone steps leading down to the lowest bridge at the waterfall is known as Jacob’s Ladder. It is close to the terminus of the Rheidol Light Railway, a popular tourist destination.
Devil’s Bridge is a term applied to dozens of ancient bridges across Europe. These early stone or masonry arch bridges were so technically advanced that local people declared they must have been the devil’s work.
Their construction was usually associated with a folk tale, and for the Mynach bridge the local tale is that an old woman’s cow had somehow got to the other side of the gorge, and she couldn’t work out how to get it back.
The Devil appeared and promised to build a bridge if he could have the soul of the first living thing to cross it.
The bridge was built, and the Devil expected the old woman would be the first to cross it in order to fetch her stranded cow. But she outwitted him.
She threw a piece of bread across the bridge and her little dog went after it. ‘You can have the dog,’ she told the Devil, ‘but the cow’s mine.’
The earliest and lowest of the bridges is a pointed masonry arch with a 16 ft span, known as Monk’s Bridge (Pont y Mynach), as it was thought to have been built by the Cistercian monks of Strata Florida Abbey, founded in 1164.
The second stone bridge was built (at an angle above the first) in 1753. Funded by the local town, it was set higher than the original bridge, which required steps down to it, so it could carry vehicles. It consists of a flat, segmented masonry arch, spanning 32 ft.
In 1901, a flat bridge of steel girders was built over the top of the whole structure, raising the height of the bridge by 7 ft. Devil’s Bridge has been listed since 1964, and now has Grade II* status.
Andy Markham, Aberystwyth, Cerdigion.
QUESTION My sister advised me to drink water that had been boiled and cooled to ease indigestion, and it worked. Why?
A DRINK of warm water is an excellent cure for indigestion is.
In order to break down food proteins, the adult stomach secretes up to 2.5 pints of gastric juices each day. This turns your food into a fluid mass that can smoothly leave your stomach for further digestion.
Enzymes function more efficiently at warm temperatures, so drinking ice-cold water with a meal can inhibit digestion.
A good reason to drink two to three pints of water a day, as recommended by the NHS, is that the stomach contains hydrochloric acid, which is highly irritating. Your stomach walls are protected by a thick, wet mucous layer that forms a shield, and water helps to keep the mucous moist and stops acid getting through to the stomach lining and causing ulcers.
A glass of warm water first thing in the morning rinses your oesophagus of any remains of stomach content that moved upwards during the night.
It promotes the decomposition of food in the stomach and re-hydrates your stomach’s mucous membrane, helping keep the protective shield intact.
Sian Peterson, Brighton.
QUESTION Inhabitants of Leicester are called Rat-eyes, from the Roman name for the city, Ratae. What other inventive nicknames are there for Britain’s towns and cities?
FURTHER to earlier answers, some years ago, I attended a funeral on The Fylde, Lancs. The vicar said the deceased had been born and died in Lytham St Annes and as such was a true ‘ Sand Grown ’ Un’ — ‘ and what we all understand about that’.
The congregation all seemed to nod in agreement, but coming from the South the term meant nothing to me.
I was later told that the expression came from a history of Lytham St Annes by local historian Kathleen Eyre, published in 1960.
The book title is Sand Grown. Thus a ‘Sand Grown ’Un’ is someone born in the borough. However, it seems to have been adopted by anyone born on the Fylde coast, including Blackpool.
Phil Alexander, Farnborough, Hants.