In Tom Fort’s BBC TV documentary A303: Highway to the Sun he tells the story of the A303 and stops off en route at South Petherton in Somerset to look at the carved stone effigies that were originally built into the bridge over the River Parrett.
In 1724, William Stukeley claimed that the effigies commemorated two children who had drowned in the river and it was with this tradition in mind that Hugh Norris, who was born at South Petherton in 1821, was warned as a child what would happen to him and other local children if they ignored warnings and committed ‘the heinous crime of picking blackberries on the river’s bank’.
In 1903, Hugh Norris published in SDNQ his research into the history of the effigies in the hope that it might lead future generations to respect them more.
Spotlight on SDNQ – The Children on Petherton Bridge
Visit Spotlight on SDNQ to discover more research themes in back issues in SDNQ.