Clattern Bridge

Clattern Bridge
Clattern Bridge
Coordinates	51°24′31″N0°18′24″W / 51.4086°N 0.3068°W
Carries	High Street
Crosses	Hogsmill River
Locale	Kingston upon Thames
Heritage status	scheduled ancient monument, Grade I listed
Characteristics
Design	arch
Material	Stone
Piers in water	2
Location

Last updated July 10, 2024

The Clattern Bridge is a bridge over the Hogsmill River in Kingston upon Thames. It was built around 1175 and is thus one of the oldest intact bridges in England. It replaced an older Saxon bridge which was known as the Clatrung Bridge. Its various names, such as the Clateryngbrugge, are thought to derive from the clattering of horses' hooves as they crossed the bridge. The bridge still carries a full load of modern vehicle traffic.

Up to the 18th century, the bridge was used as a site for the ducking of scolds with a cucking stool. The bridge also featured in the traditional game of football held in the centre of Kingston each year on Shrove Tuesday. It was the goal for one of the teams, while the nearby Kingston Bridge was the other goal.

Construction

The bridge was constructed around 1175, during the Norman era, replacing an earlier Saxon bridge. The lower portion consists of three arches made of properly dressed ashlar stones with a filling of flint rubble.^[1] In 1758, the local authority, which was then the Kingston Court of Assembly, agreed to widen the bridge.^[1] The addition was made of red brick which was bonded into the existing stone arches.^[1] Brick parapets were built and these were capped with stone.^[1] In 1852, the bridge was widened again with the addition of more brick-built structure.^[1] An ornamental railing was added at this time.^[1] This structure is considered quite sound and continues to bear a full load of traffic.^[2] It was scheduled as an ancient monument on 16 February 1938 and its structure is now Grade I listed.^[1]

In 2012, a zoological survey found that eels were having difficulty migrating upstream under the bridge, because of the fast flow of water across the smooth surface under the bridge.^[3] Tiles were fixed to the river bed with protrusions so that the eels could wriggle up them to pass the bridge and eels are now found upstream on the Hogsmill.^[4]

Traditions

Scolds were ducked at the bridge, using a cucking stool.^[5]^[6] Kingston was still doing this as late as 1745 when the landlady of the Queen's Head was ducked before a large crowd.^[7]

A traditional game of football was held each year for centuries in Kingston. Men of the town would meet at the Druid's Head on Shrove Tuesday and then the two teams – the Townsend and the Thames-Street – would compete to get the ball to one of the two goals: the great bridge over the Thames or the Clattern Bridge.^[8] William Biden tells that this started with an 8th-century dispute between rivals Kenulf and Kynard.^[8] In the late 18th century, the authorities tried to suppress the game on account of its violence and disruption of the town's trade. The Riot Act was read in 1798 and the cavalry at Hampton Court was sent for but did not respond as they were playing football too.^[9] The game was finally displaced from the public highway in 1867, when the authorities managed to move the game to a local playing field.^[10]

Related Research Articles

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Staines-upon-Thames is a market town in northwest Surrey, England, around 17 miles west of central London. It is in the Borough of Spelthorne, at the confluence of the River Thames and Colne. Historically part of Middlesex, the town was transferred to Surrey in 1965. Staines is close to Heathrow Airport and is linked to the national motorway network by the M25 and M3. The town is part of the Greater London Built-up Area.

The River Thames, known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At 215 miles (346 km), it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the River Severn.

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In the common law of crime in England and Wales, a common scold was a type of public nuisance—a troublesome and angry person who broke the public peace by habitually chastising, arguing, and quarrelling with their neighbours. Most punished for scolding were women, though men could be found to be scolds.

Ducking stools or cucking stools were chairs formerly used for punishment of disorderly women, scolds, and dishonest tradesmen in medieval Europe and elsewhere at later times. The ducking-stool was a form of wymen pine, or "women's punishment", as referred to in Langland's Piers Plowman (1378). They were instruments of public humiliation and censure both primarily for the offense of scolding or backbiting and less often for sexual offences like bearing an illegitimate child or prostitution.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teddington Lock</span> Series of locks on the River Thames in London

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hogsmill River</span> River in Surrey and Greater London, England

The Hogsmill River in Surrey and Greater London, England, is a small chalk stream tributary of the River Thames. It rises in Ewell and flows into the Thames at Kingston upon Thames on the lowest non-tidal reach, that above Teddington Lock.

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Kingston Bridge is a road bridge at Kingston upon Thames in south west London, England, carrying the A308 across the River Thames. It joins the town centre of Kingston in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames to Hampton Court Park, Bushy Park, and the village of Hampton Wick in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames. In 2005 it was carrying approximately 50,000 vehicles per day with up to 2,000 vehicles per hour in each direction during peak times.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Runnymede Bridge</span> Bridge in Staines

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References

Citations

Sources

Clattern Bridge, Historic England, 30 March 2015
Biden, William Downing (1852), The History and Antiquities of the Ancient and Royal Town of Kingston-upon-Thames, William Lindsey
Sampson, June (1972), The story of Kingston, Michael Lancet
Pratt, Derek (2015), Great Waterways Journeys, Bloomsbury, ISBN 9781472905840
Atkinson, Ken (1997), Highway Maintenance Handbook, Thomas Telford, ISBN 9780727725318
Malcolmson, Robert (1979), Popular Recreations in English Society 1700–1850, CUP Archive, ISBN 9780521295956
Pecorelli; Humble; Barker; Mowat; Debney (26 November 2013), European Eel Project Report 2013 (PDF), Zoological Society of London^{[ permanent dead link ]}
Eel Passage on the Hogsmill, South East Rivers Trust, 12 December 2016

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[FOOTNOTEHE2015-1] 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 HE 2015.

[FOOTNOTEAtkinson19977-2] Atkinson 1997, p. 7.

[FOOTNOTEPecorelliHumbleBarkerMowat201316-3] Pecorelli et al. 2013, p. 16.

[FOOTNOTESERT-4] SERT.

[FOOTNOTESampson197263-5] Sampson 1972, p. 63.

[FOOTNOTEBiden185263-6] Biden 1852, p. 63.

[FOOTNOTEPratt201522-7] Pratt 2015, p. 22.

[FOOTNOTEBiden185259-8] 1 2 Biden 1852, p. 59.

[FOOTNOTEMalcolmson1979140-9] Malcolmson 1979, p. 140.

[FOOTNOTEMalcolmson1979143-10] Malcolmson 1979, p. 143.

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