Bridges and Whisky

Wide Wednesday: Relfections on Bridges and Whisky

An early start for me today, I wanted to finish of the decorating job that I've been dealing with since Saturday, and so I was in Bath shortly after 9am this morning.  I appreciate that this isn't an early start for lots of people, but hey, I'm retired nowadays :-)

We had a frost last night and it was reasonably foggy first thing.  Fortunately there was enough mist still hanging over the River Avon to make this shot of the back of Pulteney Bridge look suitably moody when I reached it.  You are looking at the rear elevations of the little shops and cafes on the bridge - they look much more tourist friendly from the front.

So what is the connection between this bridge and a single malt whisky?

The bridge itself was built in the 1774 to link the substantial land holdings of the Pulteney family with the City of Bath itself. Prior to then, if you wanted to cross the Avon at this point you had to take a ferry.  

The Pultney that built this bridge (well he got other people to build it for him, but you know what I mean) wasn't born a Pulteney.  He was born William Johnstone and was  a successful lawyer in Edinburgh.  Johnstone was himself only the second son of a Scottish Baronet.  But being a canny chap he married  heiress Frances Pulteney (to whom he was distantly related) and changed his name to hers.  I don't know if there is any truth in the story, but apparently his changing his name was a requirement of Frances's father's will.

William Pulteney was an interesting chap and has left all sorts of historic legacies.  He was for example Thomas Telford's patron.  Telford started off as a stone mason in Dunfries but went on to design canals, roads and bridges, lots of bridges; and It was Telford who designed Pulteneytown in Caithness for William, which is of course the location of .... the Old Pulteney whisky distillery. Slàinte Mhath.