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