FROYZ HALL BRIDGE 1860's Halstead, Essex N51o 55’ 55.89” E 0o 36’ 05.35”
PRIVATE PROPERTY This bridge used to take the carriage drive across the ornamental lake of the estate from the time that Froyz Hall was built in the 1860's. There was an earlier house on the estate which is now gone, as is the Hall which was torn down in the 1930's. The bridge no longer serves a purpose as it stands alone in the farmed fields, the owners of the property having remodeled the old barns and stables for their residence at the other end of the estate. It has been vandalized (the parapet panels have been unbolted and thrown into the lake) and a concrete road bed replaced the original planks at some point and the greenery obscures its once elegant, even exotic pylons, with jaunty spikes topping their pagoda caps.
This is a suspension bridge with four pairs of flat wrought iron rods descending from the top of the pylons at angles to the road bed. It looks very similar to the cantilever/suspension bridges of James Dredge (1794 - 1863). I consulted Don McQuillan who is a Dredge expert and it is his opinion that it is not a Dredge bridge for the following reasons: a) it does not have Dredge's characteristic rods that reduce in number as they descend from the top of the pylons to the bridge deck to support the center b) the Froyz Hall 'rods' are flat bars except where they attach to the deck c) he has never seen any previous example where Dredge used riveted deck construction. Quillan feels this bridge "appears to be an early form of pure 'cable stay' bridge whereas the Dredge bridge is really a 'hybrid' cable-stay/suspension bridge."