British Iron Bridges

London and West Environs

GALLOWS FOOT BRIDGE 1820 Brentford, Middlesex TQ 161 783 N51o 29' 30" W0o 19' 34"

This is bridge #207 on the Grand Junction Canal and is about one mile from its junction with the River Thames. It is almost impossible to find without making a twenty minute walk along the tow path from the canal basin beside A315 because the area is so built up with industrial estates. The Holiday Inn is the landmark. This charming early Horseley Co. foot bridge is typical of the many of this type that they made for the canals. Each bridge is comprised of two main castings which include the railings which join in the center of the bridge with locking plates. The decking is of cast iron flanged plates.

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Category: London and West Environs

GADEBRIDGE 1840’s Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire N51o 45' 40.3" W0o 28' 30.39" HEW 1802 TL 052 080

This bridge crosses the River Gade close to A4146 in what is now a city park. It was once the home of Sir Astley Paston Cooper (Bart) a well known surgeon and the bridge was originally built to give access from Gadebridge House to the High Street. It has four cast iron arched ribs of which the halves are linked at the center with a transverse stiffening member. There is an Chinese theme to the bridge expressed with an elaborate parapet of bamboo pattern and with spandrels formed from integral hoops. Although illegible now, there was an inscription on the masonry cartouche over the crown that said "J.Cranstone" and one on the springing plate on the southwest abutment that said "Barwell and Company northants".

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Category: London and West Environs

COOKHAM BRIDGE 1867 Buckinghamshire R. Thames N51o 33' 45.9" W0o 42' 20.8" 1867 Pease, Hutchinson & Co. Ltd of Skeme Iron Wks

There has been a bridge at this crossing since the Roman times, but it was a ferry crossing in 1840 when a private company built a wooden toll bridge. When this bridge fell in to disrepair, the Cookham Bridge Co. commissioned an iron bridge from the Skeme Iron Works whose bid came in 1000 pounds below the cost of the wooden bridge of 1840. The 1867 iron bridge is supported by girders resting on eight pair of iron pillars consisting of two screw piles 1 foot, 8 inches in diameter of wrought iron plate ½ inches thick which have been filled with concrete and buried up to 10 feet into the river bed. The cast iron parapets and braces give the bridge a little grace of gothic to relieve its bare bones construction.

In 1947, the County Council bought the bridge from the company and tolls are no longer collected. The modern A4094 crosses the Thames at Cookham on this Victorian cast iron bridge

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Category: London and West Environs

BARNES RR BRIDGE 1846>49 Southwest London HEW 353 TQ 214 763 N52o 47' 30.2" W2o 59' 45.3"

This bridge carries the tracks of the Richmond and Hounslow Loop of the London and South Western Railroad across the Thames River at Barnes. The original design comprised three120 foot spans carried by six cast iron arches apiece with a timber deck for the tracks. Each arch is made up of six cast pieces. The piers are brick faced with Bramley Fall stone. The engineers were Joseph Locke and J.E. Errington and the contractor was Thomas Brassey. Construction took three years between 1846 to 1849.

The bridge was widened in the 1890's on the east side by adding wrought iron bow trusses above the original iron arches which now gives it the appearance of being two bridges. In 2009 when photographed, it was covered with scaffolding and protective plastic sheeting for sandblasting and repainting.

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Category: London and West Environs

ABINGTON BRIDGE Oxfordshire 1824 N51o 39' 59.6" W1o 17' 1.3" SU496 966

As its inscription says, this cast iron bridge was built for the Wiltshire & Berkshire Canal Company by the Acraman's foundry of Bristol. It spans the River Ock as it joins the River Thames from the west at St Helen's Wharf in Abington. Find the old part of town and take the street to the east of the imposing City Hall, going past the old church and the bridge is just beyond The Old Anchor Inn pub.

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Category: London and West Environs

WOLVERTON AQUEDUCT 1811 Buckinghamshire Grand Junction Canal/River Ouse N52o 4' 7.5" W0o 50' o.5"

When a three arched masonry aqueduct collapsed in 1808, the canal company engineer William Provis, who had worked with Thomas Wilson on the Tickford Bridge and who was familiar with Telford's Longdon, Chirk and Pontcysyllte iron trough aqueducts, placed an order with William Reynolds & Co. of Ketley for a 101 foot long iron aqueduct supported by a masonry pier. Benjamin Bevan probably was more directly involved on this project than Provis who would have been fully occupied with the Tickford Bridge which was going forward at the same time.

To find it, take the Old Wolverton High Street to its south end and take a right at the roundabout down past the Galleon Pub on the canal and park. Take the footpath west along the canal for a ten minute walk.

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Category: London and West Environs

WINDSOR TOWN BRIDGE 1824 NEW 913 SU 967 772 N51o 29' 8.7" W0o 36' 29.2"

Designed by Charles Hollis, engineer, and Jeffry Wyatt, architect

There has been a bridge here since the 12th century and maybe even earlier. This bridge whose corner stone was laid by the Duke of York in 1822, spans the River Thames with three cast iron arches resting on granite piers. The central one spans 58 feet and the two at either end span 44 feet. It is now only for pedestrian use.

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Category: London and West Environs

WINDSOR BRANCH RR BRIDGE 1848 I.K. Brunel HEW 772 SU 961 773 N51o 29' 8.6" W0o 37' 4.9"

When Brunel was building the Great Western Railway, objections from Eton College prevented the building of this branch from Slough to Windsor for 15 years. This graceful bowstring arch bridge, which has a skewed span of 202 feet, crosses the River Thames. Originally there were two tracks running between three bowstring trusses, but now only one track. Over the years, the cast iron piers were filled with concrete then replaced with brick abutments and Brunel's timber viaducts replaced with brick arches. The bearing girders are now steel.

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Category: London and West Environs

WEYBRIDGE CAST IRON BRIDGE 1865 Sussex HEW 1427 TQ069 647 N51o 22' 27.3" W0o 27' 59.1"

This elegant town bridge, giving grace and consequence to the community is located at a site where there has been a bridge across the River Wey since 675 AD and at this location on the river there has until modern times been a very busy wharf. It is now part of the Wey Navigation. Joseph Hamblet, Oldbury cast the iron and it was designed by C.H. Howell who was Surrey County Surveyor at the time. It spans 183 feet in three equal arches of 43' 6." It is located one street to the south of the modern A317 bridge.

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Category: London and West Environs

TICKFORD BRIDGE 1810 Newport Pagnell, Buckinghamshire HEW52 SP877 438 N52o 5' 9" W0o 43' 11"

( See entry under Newport-Pagnells Bridge)

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Category: London and West Environs

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