Walton Bridge | |
---|---|
Coordinates | 51°23′15″N0°25′52″W / 51.3875°N 0.4311°W |
Carries | A224 road |
Crosses | River Thames |
Locale | Walton on Thames and Shepperton, Surrey |
Maintained by | Surrey County Council |
Characteristics | |
Material | Steel |
Height | 18 feet 3 inches (5.56 m) [1] |
History | |
Opened | 2013 |
Statistics | |
Toll | Abolished 1870 |
Location | |
Walton Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames in England, carrying the A244 between Walton-on-Thames and Shepperton, crossing the Thames on the reach between Sunbury Lock and Shepperton Lock.
The bridge is the first Thames road bridge which is on both banks upstream of Greater London. The bridge is the sixth on the site. Before the first bridge, the site had a ferry dating at least to the 17th century.
Near Walton Bridge, and removed when the first bridge was built in 1750, were several barrows. Spearheads and earthenware vessels are said by James Douglas [2] to have been found in them. [3]
From Elmbridge ferries run by operators under a Crown-granted monopoly, subject to conditions, existed since the Stuart period: [4]
Hampton Court, Hampton | Molesey – see Hampton Court Bridge |
Hampton | Molesey Hurst – still operational, established 1514 [5] |
Sunbury-on-Thames | Sunbury Lock – at the north-eastern corner of Walton-on-Thames – discontinued |
Lower Halliford, Shepperton | Walton-on-Thames – now Walton Bridge |
Old Shepperton, Shepperton | Weybridge – still operational |
The two remaining join those in London (the Twickenham Ferry and Woolwich Ferry) and seasonal visitor services in Oxford.
Land near the relevant site was said in 1633 to have been washed away, reflecting the lack of the additional river channels at Windsor, Laleham and Weybridge, lack of weirs and former marshiness of the double bend of the river known as Cowey Sale and opposing small meander of land, Thames Meadow on the north bank.
A Shepperton ferry is recorded in the 15th century – at which position however is uncertain. [6] [7]
In 1747 Samuel Dicker, local landowner and later MP for Plymouth, obtained permission to build a bridge at Walton. It was designed by William Etheridge and built by White of Weybridge to consist of "timbers tangent to a circle of 100 feet diameter" and was built so that a single timber could be extracted and repaired without disturbing the rest of the bridge. [8] Old Walton Bridge was completed in August 1750 and acquired some fame, meriting an article in The Gentleman's Magazine , a report in Daniel Defoe's Tour in 1753 and a painting by Canaletto in 1754. The painting, which shows the rococo-style of this bridge, is in Dulwich Picture Gallery. [9]
Queens' College, Cambridge record that its Mathematical Bridge resembles this much grander structure also by Etheridge — unlike Walton Bridge, Etheridge's bridge there has been rebuilt twice to his design, having encountered minor wood rot, but has never collapsed. [10] [11]
The timber structure stood approximately 33 years, that is, until 1783. A report on the condition of the bridge in 1778 suggested that decay in the wooden frame made it unsuitable for use and it was dismantled five years later. [4]
The second bridge made of stone (and internally of brick) was permitted, with additional tolls, under an Act of Parliament obtained by the nephew of Mr. Dicker, Dicker Sanders and designed by James Paine, whose bridge Chertsey Bridge still stands. [3] This was opened in 1788. This bridge inspired three paintings by Turner in 1805 of different scenes featuring the bridge following some sketches which have also been preserved; most of these works are kept by the Tate Gallery, [12] [13] [14] though one painting was sold at Sotheby's in July 2018 for £3.4 million, its export then being blocked by the government for the national benefit. Most of Turner's river tour of 1805 concentrated on the Thames, with a few paintings of the Wey at that time.
The bridge lasted much longer than its predecessor, but part of it collapsed in 1859. A ferry crossing was briefly revived until the completion of the third bridge in 1864.
The third bridge, built 1863–64, was an iron girder lattice bridge on stone piers. At the same time, a brick viaduct was constructed to span the flood plain to the south of the river. The bridge was freed of tolls in 1870. [15]
The third bridge was damaged during the Second World War in 1940 leading to a permanent weight restriction. To alleviate this a fourth temporary bridge was constructed and the third bridge was relegated to use by cyclists and pedestrians. Robbins described it in 1953 as "an ungracious structure of iron lattice girders" in his county history. [16] Assisted by the weight restriction and metal design it was longer-lasting than the previous two bridges but was finally demolished in 1985.
The fourth bridge was constructed in 1953 on the downstream side of the old bridge, using a truss construction designed by A. M. Hamilton in 1930 and is called a Callender-Hamilton bridge. The fourth bridge was retained for use by cyclists and pedestrians when the fifth bridge was completed in 1999.
In 1999, while the fourth bridge remained standing for use by pedestrians and cyclists, another temporary structure, the fifth bridge, on the site of the original bridges, was opened for vehicular traffic. This initially had several problems and had to be resurfaced a number of times causing traffic disruptions. The poor architecture of these two co-existing bridges led to demands for construction of the sixth bridge (pictured). Together, the old bridges faced heavy criticism as had the very existence of a rusting, less strong, incongruous, military style foot and cycle bridge and engineers predicted structural weakness by 2015, hence the plans for a new bridge. In 2003 a political impetus grew for rebuilding and was a key local election issue for councillors seeking to run for Elmbridge Borough Council and Surrey County Council combined with the Heart of Walton Development which was not yet complete. [17]
The sixth bridge was opened on 22 July 2013. [18] A public inquiry rejected some aspects of the original plan but approval of the funding arrangements was confirmed on 29 December 2010. After extensive preparatory work in 2011, the main construction works began on 9 January 2012, and building completed in July 2013. The bridge replaced the two extant bridges (4th and 5th), which remained in use during construction. The new £32.4 million bridge has no piers in the river, thus opening up views along the river and improving navigation for boats. The constructor completed the removal of the old bridges in November 2013 and was set to complete surrounding landscaping works in August 2014. [19]
The bridge is used on an unsigned but map-marked cyclists' variation of the Thames Path bypassing the on-request Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry, that runs during main hours of daytime, to where the path recombines at Chertsey Bridge, where it takes the northern towpath as below Hampton Court Bridge.
The bridge, a thrust arch bridge, provides the first single-span bridge heading up the Thames. The next single-span bridges up the Thames are a pair of co-functional "old and new" Runnymede Bridges between Surrey and Berkshire.
Weybridge is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around 17 mi (27 km) southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as Waigebrugge and Weibrugge in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the River Wey, which flows into the River Thames to the north of the town centre. The earliest evidence of human activity is from the Bronze Age. During the Anglo-Saxon and medieval periods, Weybridge was held by Chertsey Abbey.
Kew Bridge is a wide-span bridge over the Tideway linking the London Boroughs of Richmond upon Thames and Hounslow. The present bridge, which was opened in 1903 as King Edward VII Bridge by King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra, was designed by John Wolfe-Barry and Cuthbert A Brereton. Historic England listed it at Grade II in 1983.
Elmbridge is a local government district with borough status in Surrey, England. Its council is based in Esher, and other notable towns and villages include Cobham, Walton-on-Thames, Weybridge and Molesey. The borough lies just outside the administrative boundary of Greater London, but is mostly within the M25 motorway which encircles London. Many of the borough's urban areas form part of the wider Greater London Built-up Area.
Shepperton is a village in north Surrey, England, around 15 mi (24 km) south west of central London. On the north bank of the River Thames, the settlement is in the Borough of Spelthorne, it is between the towns of Chertsey and Sunbury-on-Thames. The village is mentioned in a document of 959 AD and in the Domesday Book.
Walton-on-Thames, known locally as Walton, is a market town on the south bank of the Thames in northwest Surrey, England. It is in the Borough of Elmbridge, about 15 mi (24 km) southwest of central London. Walton forms part of the Greater London built-up area, within the KT postcode and is served by a wide range of transport links. According to the 2011 Census, the town has a total population of 22,834. The town itself consists mostly of suburban streets, with a historic town centre of Celtic origin. It is one of the largest towns in the Elmbridge borough, alongside Weybridge.
Molesey is a suburban district comprising two villages, East Molesey and West Molesey, in the Borough of Elmbridge, Surrey, England, and is situated on the south bank of the River Thames.
Walton and Weybridge Urban District was a local government district in Surrey, England from 1933 to 1974.
Hampton Court Bridge is a Grade II listed bridge that crosses the River Thames in England approximately north–south between Hampton, London and East Molesey, Surrey, carrying the A309. It is the upper of two road bridges on the reach above Teddington Lock and downstream of Molesey Lock.
D'Oyly Carte Island is a small private island in the River Thames, England, administratively and historically part of Weybridge, near its other inhabited islands and near part of Old Shepperton, on the reach above Sunbury Lock, 200 metres downstream from Shepperton Lock. Before 1890 the island was known as Folly Eyot. The impresario Richard D'Oyly Carte bought the island in about 1890 and built the 13-bedroom Eyot House on the property. His widow sold the island, and it was last sold in 2021.
Shepperton Lock is a lock on the River Thames, in England by the left bank at Shepperton, Surrey. It is across the river from Weybridge which is nearby linked by a passenger ferry.
Esher Urban District was an urban district in Surrey, England created by merging two urban districts and adding two parishes to the south-west. It existed from 1933 to 1974 and was governed by the elected Esher Urban District Council which shared local government functions with Surrey County Council. Its main building was the large town hall in Esher.
Old Walton Bridge is the name given to the first Walton Bridge built across the River Thames between Walton-on-Thames and Shepperton in Surrey, England. The wooden bridge was completed in 1750, was painted by Canaletto and stood until 1783 when, in decay, it was dismantled to make way for a stone-clad brickwork replacement, later painted by J. M. W. Turner.
Desborough Island is a 112-acre (0.45 km2) manmade island in the River Thames on the reach above Sunbury Lock in Surrey, England. It was formed in the 1930s by the digging of a channel – the Desborough Cut – by the Thames Conservancy as a meander cutoff of narrow width on the right bank. The island and cut are named after Lord Desborough, a chairman of the Thames Conservancy.
Sunbury Lock is a lock complex of the River Thames in England near Walton-on-Thames in north-west Surrey, the third lowest of forty four on the non-tidal reaches. The complex adjoins the right, southern bank about 1⁄2 mile (0.80 km) downstream of the Weir Hotel.
The Shepperton to Weybridge Ferry is a pedestrian and cycle ferry service across the River Thames in Surrey, England. The service has operated almost continuously for over 500 years.
Hamhaugh Island is an island, historically known simply as Stadbury, in the River Thames in England south of Shepperton Lock, in Shepperton, Surrey.
William Etheridge was an English civil engineer and architect, best known for his work on several wooden bridges of mathematical design.
The Weybridge United Reformed Church situate at Queen's Road, Weybridge, near to its junction with York Road, is a Victorian Grade II Listed church building that is now no longer used as a place of worship.