Rebellion the place
proved to the Royal cause in the West a kind of Metz. The castle was
supposed to be impregnable, and was held in force for the king by
Colonel Wyndham, but on the destruction of the suburb of Eastover by
Fairfax, the royal colours were, much to the chagrin of Charles,
unexpectedly hauled down from the stronghold, and the garrison, 1000
strong, tamely walked out. The Parliamentary commander made a huge
"bag" by the capture. It was, however, in connection with Monmouth's
ill-starred enterprise that Bridgwater attained its chief historical
notoriety, for it was here that the Duke had his headquarters before
the fatal engagement on Sedgemoor. Of the castle--founded by a De
Briwere, who is said to have been the bearer of Richard I.'s
ransom--hardly a vestige remains. King's Square now occupies its place,
and a few fragments of its walls and portions of the water-gate are
incorporated in some of the cellars which border the quay. In the
centre of the town is the parish church of St Mary, a spacious building
with a low W. tower of red sandstone crowned by a tall and graceful
spire. It is chiefly Perp., with an ugly and inharmonious modern
clerestory; but there are some remains of the Dec. period in the N.
porch. Over the altar hangs a picture of the "Descent from the Cross,"
said to have been found in the hold of a captured privateer. The
noteworthy features are (1) black oak screens and pulpit, (2) the
blocked squints, in the porches, (3) stoup and geometric rose window in
N. porch, (4) mural monument to Sir Francis Kingsmill and two sons. In
the churchyard are two timeworn, recumbent figures recessed into the N.
wall of N. transept, and an altar-tomb to Oldmixon, mentioned in Pope's
"Dunciad." In front of the town-hall is a good statue of Blake, the
famous Cromwellian admiral, whose birthplace, much modernised, will be
found in Blake Street. An arched doorway in Silver Street is said to
have been the gateway of a college of Grey Friars. A house E. of the
churchyard has a fine panelled ceiling. The modern church of St John in
the suburb of Eastover (for the name, cp. Northover at Ilchester and
Southover at Wells) stands upon the site of a former hospital of the
Knights of St John, founded by William de Briwere in the 13th cent.
Besides its shipping trade, Bridgwater does a large business in bricks
and tiles, and possesses a unique industry in the manufacture of Bath
bricks--presumably so called from their r