Bridge to the Fishing Lodge: 2023-25
The Abbot’s Hall estate and its listed gardens include an ornamental canal with an early 18th-century fishing lodge or summer house on a small island (Grade II listed). Due to the condition of the bridge, the island has been inaccessible to visitors since the museum took over the hall and gardens in the 1990s.
The previous dilapidated bridge probably dated from the mid 20th century and there were no records or descriptions of its predecessors. The new bridge was required to link to an existing boardwalk to provide inclusive visitor access to the island in an elegant manner evoking the 18th-century origins of the landscape without attempting to recreate or reimagine the original design.
Our stunning new bridge has been designed by Jon Pattle, architect and long-time museum volunteer, working with Modece Architects. He says:
‘The executed design for the bridge is a single arched spanning between the perimeter boardwalk and the island which will allow rowing boats to pass beneath the bridge and keep the feet of the bridge above water level. The structure is derived from a design sketch by Leonardo da Vinci for a self-supporting bridge which can be simply constructed from relatively short timber sections, but here the basic design elaborated with additional radial struts supporting the bridge deck and forming the balustrade frameworks. Formed in green oak, the frame uses a combination of overlapping timbers joined with simple notches, clasping bolted joints and face fixed laps to hold everything in place and transfer loads to stainless steel abutment anchors supported by mini-pile foundations. Two mature lime trees on the canal bank frame the approach to the bridge and it was important to devise a foundation solution which safeguards the trees.’
The Fishing Lodge and island are now undergoing repairs and redecoration ready for opening in spring 2025.
The project was made possible by DCMS/Wolfson Museums Museums and Galleries Development Fund, Suffolk Public Sector Leaders and New Anglia LEP’s Suffolk Inclusive Growth Investment Fund, The Belstead Ganzoni Charitable Settlement, The Alfred Williams Charitable Trust, Mid Suffolk District Council, The Geoffrey Burton Charitable Trust and private donors.

The bridge was assembled off site by Stowe Building Contractors to test the joints before being dismantled and reassembled at the museum.

The bridge in situ before works to the island and the lodge.