BRIDGE WATCH
Sutton Bridge
The Group whose aims are
'Good Governance' and 'Community Spirit'
in Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire
OUR TOWN
Historic Sutton Bridge - The Gateway To Lincolnshire
This
'Our Town' slot features different buildings and landmarks of local interest, some of them being 'listed', with a brief word about their historical interest. We would welcome any further information
from the residents of Sutton Bridge, particularly if there are interesting stories to tell about them.
Known as the 'Gateway to Lincolnshire', Sutton Bridge is a village and civil parish with a population of approximately 4000 inhabitants, situated in southeastern Lincolnshire and located on the west bank of the River Nene, close to the county borders with Norfolk and Cambridgeshire.
According to PREL (Peterborough Renewable Engergy Ltd), in their Screening and Scoping Opinion (Sept 2009), Sutton Bridge has no ‘scheduled monuments’ within 2km of their proposed development (4.4.5 (h) Page 17). Yet our town has eight listed buildings!
~ LISTED BUILDINGS IN SUTTON BRIDGE ~
| PARK HOUSE | RED TELEPHONE KIOSK | MILESTONE | No.2 BRIDGE ROAD |
| THE EAST & WEST BANK LIGHTHOUSES | BRIDGE HOUSE WEST | THE NEW INN |
| No.64-68 BRIDGE ROAD | BRIDGES ACROSS THE RIVER NENE |
| HYDRAULIC ENGINE HOUSE |~ INTERESTING LOCAL BUILDINGS / LANDMARKS ~
| BRIDGE HOUSE EAST - THE FIRST TOLL HOUSE | THE GRANARY AND WAREHOUSE |
| THE POLICE HOUSE | THE RAF MEMORIAL |
PARK HOUSE
Park House, formerly Metalair, now offices, is an early 19th Century Grade 2 listed building built in yellow brick but now has a C20 concrete tile roof. The open porch has free standing fluted columns (Doric) at the front and plain pilasters behind. The door is partly glazed and has single glazed sash windows on either side.
Park House
The house was built by the Guy’s Hospital Estate and was intended for their resident steward. Until 1919 Guy’s Hospital owned most of Sutton Bridge. The village had developed on part of their land and the Estate also built the church and the schools.
For further information about this and the industrial history of Sutton Bridge, please see the recently published latest edition of Sutton Bridge – An Industrial History by Neil Wright with help from Beryl Jackson. It is published by the Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology, Jews’ Court, Steep Hill, Lincoln, LN2 1LS and can be obtained from them price £11.95 incl. postage.
Two unusual listed buildings in Sutton Bridge
Red Telephone Kiosk, East Bank, Sutton Bridge
A Type K6 telephone kiosk, designed in 1935 by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and subsequently made by various contractors. Made in cast iron, it is a square kiosk and has a domed roof. This is the most well known of all red telephone kiosks. Its red colour was chosen so that it would be highly visible, especially in an emergency.
1935 Gilbert Scott Design Telephone Kiosk, East Bank, Sutton Bridge
In the 1990’s, BT replaced many of these traditional boxes with a more modern design. This led to a public outcry. In some places the red kiosks have been replaced, or disappeared. The telephone kiosk is still operational and maintained by BT.
The Public Notice (dated 11/09/09) pasted inside the kiosk inviting adoption by the local community.
In other villages, communities have adopted their kiosk and renovated it. This has happened in Foul Anchor. The telephone kiosk has a Grade II listing.
Milestone, Long Sutton Road
Constructed in the mid 19th century, the milestone is painted ashlar (which means a block of hewn stone with straight edges). It is rectangular in shape and 0.75m tall with a moulded front, on which is inscribed: ‘Spalding…’ but the rest of the inscription is illegible. On the right-hand side it reads: ‘Sutton Bridge 1 mile’ and ‘Long Sutton 2 miles’, although this is not as clear now as it was when it was first listed.
As can be seen from the two photographs, the milestone is no longer in an upright position and cannot be seen from the road. In order to take the photographs, we had to cut back the grass and nettles in order to be able to read the inscriptions.
While the milestone shown below is not the one mentioned in this article, it is in the centre of the parish of Sutton Bridge
No. 2 BRIDGE ROAD
No 2 Bridge Road (now nos. 8 & 10), which is an early 19th Century red brick dwelling with a plain tile roof.
View showing No 2 Bridge Road (now nos. 8 & 10), Sutton Bridge
[Photo taken c. 1900]
Its imposing red front door makes it easily identifiable just across from the Green. The doorcase is topped with an open pediment. The door has an over light and on either side were single glazing bar sashes It has two storeys plus an attic with three bays, each with a single plain casement window. Today the building has been converted into six flats.
8 & 10 Bridge Road, Sutton Bridge
THE EAST & WEST BANK LIGHTHOUSES
The East and the West Bank Lighthouses are both Grade II listed buildings. Both are described as early 19th century structures with 20th century alterations. Both are brick built, and have been rendered and colour washed. They each consist of a single central red brick stack of three storeys under a rounded lead roof plus an octagonal lantern.
The East Bank Lighthouse lantern has two single circular openings to the north and east sides.
The West Bank Lighthouse lantern has 8 circular openings, all of which are blind except for those opening to the north and south.
The early history of the Lighthouses (before Sir Peter Scott’s time)
For a long time Sutton Bridge was part of the parish of Long Sutton. Today Sutton Bridge is officially a town even though the locals still think of it as 'the Village'. It stands on land reclaimed from the estuary of the River Nene which flows into the Wash.
Since the Middle Ages land has been reclaimed from the Wash and the Nene estuary. Sea banks were built to enclose this reclaimed land. The 1640 Vermuyden embankment reduced the estuary's width to approximately 2 miles and this stretch of water was known as Cross Keys Wash or Sutton Wash. Behind this embankment were the villages of Lutton, Long Sutton, Tydd St Mary (further south) and to the east of the river, the Walpoles, including Walpole Cross Keys.
There were ferries at Foul Anchor, east of Tydd St Mary, and another ferry and ford at Walton Dam, further south. But the quickest route was to cross the sands and silt of the Cross Keys Wash. It was a long and dangerous crossing over shifting sands. It was not a pleasant journey.
After crossing the medieval sea bank at Sutton, travellers had negotiate a two mile stretch of common and marsh before arriving at the Wash House (now the Bridge Hotel) for refreshments and perhaps lodgings, while waiting for a guide to take them across to the other side. Slipways enabled travellers, who included drovers with cattle bound for Norwich, horses and passengers of all kinds, to access the river. They were guided up to their middles in water — very uncomfortable and dangerous, and rested at Cross Keys House on the Norfolk bank before continuing their journey east to Kings Lynn and beyond.
Inevitably, there were many accidents. A carriage could suddenly sink in quick sand; horses would be sucked into the soft ground and stick fast. The usual method of freeing them by tramping round and round them a few feet away from them to force them up by counter-pressure — sometimes failed, and the horses were left to drown.
Guides had helped people cross the river at this point for hundreds of years. According to a survey of the manor of Queen Elizabeth I, guides had to pay 12 pence per annum for a licence to guide people across, as it was part of the 'Queen's Highway'. There is a tombstone in Long Sutton Churchyard dedicated to William Wigglesworth who, with his horse and long staff guided folk across for 52 years. He died at 85.
The route was sufficiently busy to allow for the building of a bridge over the river at Sutton Wash. The River Welland at Fosdyke had been bridged in 1812-14 and the Ouse at Kings Lynn in 1821. So now the only gap remaining between the north and the east of England was over the River Nene.
In 1826 the Cross Keys Act was passed to build an embankment from the Wash House to the opposite bank in Norfolk with a bridge over the Nene somewhere along its length. The following year another Act was passed allowing a new channel to be cut and land to be reclaimed behind the proposed Cross Keys embankment. In 1829, another Act of Parliament allowed for the erection of two lighthouses, or beacons.
The West Bank Lighthouse c. early 20th century, before it was rendered.
They were to be built at the seaward end of the new cut. They were necessary because the cut entered deep water at a point where the estuary was 3 miles wide. It was believed that shipping could easily miss the entrance to the river, even in daylight. Although called 'lighthouses' they were really landmarks because they did not have lights. The one on the west bank was only a short way from dry land, but the east lighthouse was at the end of a 3 mile long embankment that had the Nene on one side and the sands of the old estuary on the other.
[The author gratefully acknowledges the source of much of this information: Sutton Bridge — An Industrial History by Neil R Wright with help from Beryl Jackson: Society for Lincolnshire History and Archaeology; ISBN 978-0-903582-37-7]
Sir Peter Scott's lighthouse
Peter Scott's first encounter with the East Bank Lighthouse was in December 1929. He had commissioned a new punt-boat from a punt builder in Cambridge and with two friends, taking it turns, they brought the boat, named Kazarka, Russian for the Red-breasted goose, to an anchorage on Terrington Marsh (between Sutton Bridge and Kings Lynn). Peter Scott, at this time, was a keen wildfowler and after bagging a Pinkfoot each and three Mallards and two curlews, the two friends set out for the punt. Their intention was to take Kazarka round into the River Nene, four miles direct from where they were by road, but three times further by water at low tide. They intended to leave the punt there over Christmas. They also hoped to stalk more wildfowl.
The East Bank Lighthouse c.1935
Finding the tide receding at a rapid rate, they only just had enough time to launch the boat on a narrow trickle of water into a narrow, winding creek. The light was beginning to fade and a strong SSE wind was blowing very hard and it was beginning to drizzle. They were very hungry having had nothing to eat since early morning and Peter Scott later described it as madness that they had even decided to attempt to get into the Nene Channel, which they did not know, and in the dark. They hoped the neap tide would enable them to 'cuff a good many corners'. The alternative was to turn back and sit and wait in the dark and cold before the tide would flood them back onto the marsh.
As they approached the sea they could it was a big tide and after only just having enough time to get their gun from the front of the punt and turning up the 'hinged coamings', the huge waves lifted the boat up and water poured off the decks.
Although they could see a marked wreck on their port side (marked on the chart), they couldn't see the channel. In fact they were actually sailing away from their destination. However, as the last light faded, they came aground on a lee shore and managed to get the sail down and the oars out. Rowing was no good and the tide was still falling, so they poled onto the sandbar, where they managed to reset the sail. During this time, they had drifted and found themselves literally and figuratively in deep water ten feet and with big waves. Peter Scott wrote later that this was his 'nastiest moment'. They knew that they had to sail on. The chart they used seemed to bear little relation to where they thought they were and what they could see. By this time they were having to bale out the water that was continually being thrown into the boat.
After what seemed like a long time, and with the boat moving reasonably steadily with less water being taken on board, they decided the time had come to swim. Then, at that moment, they saw land ahead and Peter Scott was able to touch bottom with a ten-foot pole. After going ashore and stowing the mast and sail, they decided to go on rather than leave the boat and walk across the mud. Rowing was useless and so was poling, so they walked and pushed the punt but this proved useless because the punt was still taking water on board. In the end Peter sat in the stern baling out water as fast as it came in, while his friend towed using one of the breeching ropes. They ended up in a dead end with shallow water all around. By this time they could see the glow of light from Kings Lynn, Sutton Bridge and Long Sutton, and the points of lights of cars travelling on the main road about four miles away.
Laying down in the punt to get out of the wind and finding a stale ham sandwich, Peter and his companion drifted off to sleep. They awoke to find the tide beginning to flow, which enabled them to get back into the channel. The tide had subsided and after passing a series of beacons they knew they must be in the right channel. As it straightened they saw the 'old lighthouses' and heard geese not far off. They secured the boat and managed to climb up the mud slope and walked along the bank to the lighthouse relieved to be on dry land again. One of the cottagers gave them milk and they set off again to walk the three miles to Sutton Bridge, where they hired a car to take them ten miles to Lynn.
There were many visits to the Terrington and Holbeach Marshes and Peter Scott had been trying for some time to lease the disused lighthouse on the east bank of the Nene. In 1933 he applied for, and was granted, a lease for a rent of £5 per year. The lighthouse was still in use as a 'hailing post' for HM Customs and Exercise. There were two customs officers stationed at Sutton Bridge and one of them would arrive half an hour before high water and using a megaphone would hail any ship entering or leaving the river. Half an hour after high water, he would return to Sutton Bridge.
Peter Scott in front of the East Bank Lighthouse - the steps were removed when the garage and studio were built.
Before this, the lighthouse had been home to a man who worked on the river bank and his family. It had been condemned and unfit for human habitation and had stood vacant for several years until Peter Scott took it over. Peter Scott repointed the brickwork and lined the walls inside to make it reasonably dry. There was a reasonable roadway on the bank serving the farms and cottages but the last half mile to the lighthouse was just the grassy top of the bank. His car frequently slithered and slipped but fortunately never skidded into the river or got stuck in the mud.
The River Nene had a rise and fall of about thirty feet and at low water there was a steep slope of soft mud held together by faggots, which need constant renewing. Nowadays, further reclamations have pushed the salt marsh further north into the Wash. In the 1930s the spring tides surrounded the lighthouse and covered the saltmarsh to the foot of the bank.
Today the inside of the lighthouse is very much as it was when Peter Scott lived there. Its conical shape makes it look more like a windmill than a lighthouse. There are four floors, the bottom one is 16 feet in diameter and above it are three rooms with progressively smaller diameters. The one at the very top is about 6 feet in diameter and there is only just has enough room for a small single bed. It has two small round windows opposite each other and give marvellous views, one up river towards the port (not there in Peter Scott's time and the power station chimneys); and the other over the sea wall and the mudfalts and saltmarsh beyond. Peter Scoot looked out over the Wash and its sandbanks and saltings.
Peter Scott made his bedroom on the floor below this one. He painted 'ghostly geese' on its pale green walls, outlined in white, 'for ever circling the room'. (Today's owner sleeps in the extension to the lighthouse.) On the next floor down was a twin-bedded sitting room and the beds hung from stout ropes attached from each corner to the ceiling. When the beds were not in use, a series of blocks and tackles as used to haul the eds up to the ceiling and the room was used as a sitting room. To reach the upper rooms, you had to use ladders through trapdoors. The first floor was and still is, connected with the ground floor by a curved stairway which follows the curve of the wall. The doors are cut into this curve and look most odd when opened! It makes you feel quite giddy! This room was Peter Scott's living room and studio and was sometimes shared with a Customs Officer at high tide.
A small lean-too had been added to make a kitchen for the previous occupant and Peter Scott added a small bathroom beyond it. Outside, steps lead down to a basement. This space was occupied by a gentleman of the road called Charlie, a big friendly red-haired man who collected cockles and samphire in the summer and worked as a handyman in the winter.
The East Bank Lighthouse in winter
The East Lighthouse was Peter Scott's home until the beginning of the Second World War. During those five years he added a flat-roofed studio that overlooked the marsh. He also added a larger bedroom and a bunk room that connected with the garage and boathouse that he had constructed at first. He also made a new front entrance that led from a gravel driveway into a small hall. This last addition, he said, made it a 'proper home'.
His initial intention had been to use the lighthouse as a temporary base for wildfowling weekends but he soon began to see it as a permanent home. Before he could do this he had to pipe fresh water to it and this could only be done by making a connection to the main across the river near the West Lighthouse. It was easier than expected: he simply crossed the river in a boat with a load of pipes, connecting them together and allowing them to sag down on the bed of the river. The supply was only secure as long as no ship came up river stern first, dragging an anchor. His system worked for the next five years.
His other main intention was to keep waterfowl on the marsh around the lighthouse. He made enclosures using a fifty-foot roll of six-foot wire netting and some metal stakes bought from the hardware shop in Sutton Bridge. The wire fence was erected around small pool on the salt marsh close to the lighthouse. It was about 20 yards long and five yards wide. Fifteen geese were introduced to this enclose. However, he soon realised that something larger would be need and would mean more planning.
[The author gratefully acknowledges information gleaned from Peter Scott's autobiography, The Eye of the Wind (1961) and conversations with the present owner of the lighthouse.]
NEW INN, BRIDGE ROAD
This coaching inn was built in the mid 18th Century, but was re-fronted and extended in the early part of the 19th Century. It is a two storey building, and was constructed in brick and has been rendered and colourwashed. It has a slate roof and two ridge stacks. The door is partly glazed and the doorway has an overlight. To the left is a single segmented arched plain sash window with margin lights. Three similar segmented arched sashes are to the right. On the second storey, there are five similar segmental arched glazing bar sashes, with the one over the left doorway being narrower.
The New Inn as it appears today, after recently re-opening
The New Inn is a Grade II listed building.
No. 64-68 BRIDGE ROAD
A handsome terrace of three Georgian houses, opposite St Matthew’s Church, built in the early 19th century, in red brick with a slate roof. The construction comprises of a double-depth plan of two and half storeys. The doorways have panelled doors, a glazed fanlight and pilastered door cases that support an open pediment. The windows are glazed bar sashes and the property also has three blind windows. The windows on the top floor follow the same pattern as below but are smaller. All the sash windows and blind openings have cambered arched flush wedge lintels.
The Georgian terrace in Bridge Road
The Georgian terrace in winter, showing the double-depth side elevation
The Georgian terrace is a Grade II listed building.
BRIDGES ACROSS THE RIVER NENE
Cross Keys Bridge a Grade 11* listing (previously included the Hydraulic Engine House). This bridge is the third bridge to span the River Nene at Sutton Bridge. It opened in 1897 and was built by A Handyside & Co. Ltd. It was constructed in iron, steel and wood. It has a central swing span, which is mounted on a pivot pier that was originally operated by hydraulic machinery. It was constructed by Sir WG Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. The steel for the girders was manufactured by the Staffordshire Steel Co. There are two fixed spans of steel girders at the east end of the bridge. It has a wooden podium on top which is surmounted with a hexagonal wood and glazed viewing chamber.
Cross Keys Bridge
The first bridge was built in 1830 and was designed by Sir John Rennie. It was built of oak and had a movable iron span which divided in the middle and opened upwards to allow sailing ships to pass beneath. At the same time, a toll house was built at the west end of the Bridge and the toll-keeper’s cottage was built on the east bank. (See articles below) It would not have made comfortable crossing for pedestrians because after leaving the bridge on the Norfolk side, people had to descend to the sands and this could be very dangerous when crossing the rest of the estuary, especially at night. In the autumn of 1830, boards were placed at the Clenchwarton and Walpole toll-gates to convince people that it was safe to cross the sands on foot and that guides would not be necessary This bridge lasted twenty years.
The first bridge 1830-1850
The second bridge was erected in the autumn of 1850 after improvements were made to the Nene below Wisbech. It was constructed cast and wrought iron and designed by Robert Stephenson. It was built about 100 feet south of the first bridge. The roads on either side were diverted to accommodate the bridge. When the railway between King’s Lynn and Sutton Bridge was built in 1864, the railway company bought the bridge and used the southern half for their line. This saved them the expense of building another bridge just for the railway.
The second bridge built in 1850, which was adapted in 1864 to take the railway
However, improvements to the railway line included the building of a third bridge — the swing road and rail bridge we see today, although without the railway, which was removed after the railway line closed in 1959, and later dismantled.
The third bridge was begun in 1895 and opened in 1897
The road and rail crossing looking towards King's Lynn
By the end of the 19th century, there were between 60 and 80 trains a day crossing the bridge which was also being opened for shipping about five times daily. It opened for traffic in July 1897. (See ‘Sutton Bridge–an Industrial History, by Neil Wright [with help from Beryl Jackson] pps18-24).
An eastbound train about to cross the bridge before the railway was closed in 1959
We have attempted to trace the copyright of these photographs, but without success. If anyone knows to whom they should be attributed, we shall be glad to acknowledge this.
The Hydraulic Engine House, Grade 11*
Hydraulic Engine House, Tydd Gote Road, Sutton Bridge, was formally listed as a Grade 11* building in 1980 as part of the Cross Keys Bridge. The machinery was built in 1897 by Sir W. G. Armstrong, Whitworth & Co. Ltd. It was built in iron, red brick and has slate roofs. The ribbed iron tower has a hipped roof with overhanging eaves and consists of two storeys and has two bays. There are no ground floor openings. There are two glazing bar sashes with flat heads to the front and rear and a single similar sash on each side wall. Behind is a single storey red brick range with 3 bays. The moulded brick eaves have large wooden ventilators. There are two segmental arched doorways with planked doors, the one to the right being wider. To the left is a large segmental arched glazing bar with a fixed light. At the rears are 3 similar windows to the right of a small blocked doorway.
The Hydraulic Engine House
The Engine House was built to contain the hydraulic machinery needed to operate the swing bridge. Originally the power came from 2 locomotive type boilers, but they were replaced by 2 electric motors. The building is connected underground to the Cross Keys Bridge.
The Hydraulic Engine House is now part of a private dwelling.
BRIDGE HOUSE WEST
Bridge House West is a Grade II listed building described as a lodge. It was built in the mid-19th century at the time the second bridge was built in 1850. An early photograph of the second bridge shows the house. The road from the bridge actually ran through what is now the front garden of the Bridge House West.
Bridge House West
The building consists of two storeys (one built into the roof space). It is constructed in red brick with ashlar dressings and quoins (or cornerstones). There are two bays: the west front has a left projecting front over which the main roof projects. The roof has fishtail tiles and sprocketed eaves and a decorative ridge. The gabled half dormer has a single casement with flush ashlar surround. The gabled porch has a chamfered pointed arched aisle doorway and a plank door.. There are some twentieth century alterations on the north side.
The present owners have lived here since 1978 and made some of the 20th century additions. It was in a bad state of repair when they bought the property. There was no inside sanitation and only a cold water tap. Previously it was let to tenants. When the railway between Sutton Bridge and King’s Lynn was built in 1864, the railway keeper lived in the house. Before that, it was a toll house like its neighbour across the river at Bridge House East, and served the second bridge. The first Toll House was no longer close enough to the roadway from the bridge, being about 100feet south of the first bridge and consequently, the roads at each end of the bridge had to be diverted to meet up with the second bridge.
At one point the District Council wanted to compulsorily purchase the building to build some public toilets, but there was a lot of local opposition to this plan and support for the present owners, including the drawing up of a petition, which attracted local and national newspaper, and television news, attention. Consequently the idea was dropped and the lodge continued to be a residence.
Bridge House West was listed after the alterations were made. Looking at the house today it is hard to see where the additions were made. Living in a listed building does have some difficulties for owners if alterations need to be done because there are special building regulations to be adhered to. Bridge House West owners think this is a good thing because it protects buildings and if other buildings in Sutton Bridge had been listed, they might still be here today. An example of this was the Station House, and the station, both of which were demolished after the railway was dismantled.
Bridge House West today
Bridge House West is included in the proposed conservation area which is at the ‘almost-ready-for-completion’ stage but cannot be finalised at the moment because funding is not currently available. The conservation area covers an area that includes St Matthew’s Church, the Memorial Park, The Bridge Hotel and the streets behind it’ This area should be conserved as this part of Sutton Bridge is particularly interesting from an historical point of view.
BRIDGE HOUSE EAST - THE FIRST TOLL HOUSE
The first Cross Keys Bridge was finished in June 1830 before the River Nene was diverted into its new channel and was in use for about a year before the road on the embankment was completed. During this time, travellers had to pay a toll to use the bridge, even though they had to climb down to the sands to cross the rest of the estuary!
In September 1830 boards were laid at the Clenchwarton and Walpole toll-gates to indicate to travellers that it was safe to cross to the bridge at certain tides. These became known as the Lynn Boards.
Many travellers were angry at having to pay a toll to cross the bridge and walk on dangerous tidal sands before reaching it. There is a story of one person who attacked the toll-gate keeper and refused to pay. Needless to say this was not going to be tolerated.
The present owners of Bridge House East believe that their home had been built around this time and in 1997, they produced a booklet The First Toll House (Bridge House East) An Accidental History, documenting its history, which, unfortunately, is now out of print.
Bridge House East
A toll bar was built on the West Bank and a toll-keeper’s cottage (now Bridge House East) was built on the East Bank. It is a very substantial red-brick building, overlain with shingle rendering, with a slate roof and was, when it was built, the only building on that side of the river, standing between marsh and sandbanks.
With the road completed on the Norfolk side, one year after the bridge was built, the first vehicle, the Union Coach from Norwich to Newark crossed the bridge on 4th July, 1831 able to use the road on the east bank. It left from the Cross Keys Tavern in Norfolk and crossed to the Wash House Inn (now the Bridge Hotel), with celebrations at each point.
The Last Stage Coach at the Bridge Hotel, Sutton Bridge
This photograph was taken in the 1950's. The story is that around this time, and for a number of years, a family from Lincolnshire travelled into Norfolk for their annual holiday. They would use the Bridge Hotel as a staging post to water and feed the horses, before continuing their journey. No doubt the early 19th century traveller would have used a similar method of travelling between the two counties after the first bridge was built and before the railway was built in 1864.
The major fault with the 1830 bridge was that it was built at the same time as the cut and the piles were driven into the bed before the old channel was closed up and the new channel was properly scoured by the tides. This caused scouring to the piles, making the bridge slightly unstable. Stones were thrown around the piles to strengthen them but this caused eddies on each tide, which affected the handling of the ships that passed.
When the second bridge was built in 1850 (another story) a toll house was provided on the west bank (Bridge House West) which also still stands.
The crowds massing on the third (existing) bridge when the toll was removed in November 1903. (Inset:Toll ticket)
Tolls ended on 4th November 1903 when the County Council agreed to maintain the embankment and the road along it. The Midland and Great Northern Railway agreed to give up the tolls for a payment of £7,000 but continued to own and maintain it. To celebrate the ending of tolls, the crowds packed the bridge to hear the official declaration.
The story of the three bridges at Sutton Bridge will be the subject of a later article.
[Sources: Sutton Bridge – An Industrial History by Neil Wright with help from Beryl Jackson (SLHA 2009) The First Toll House – an Accidental History by Maureen & Peter Hunt (1997)]
THE GRANARY AND THE WAREHOUSE
Two place names in Sutton Bridge - Garner’s Wharf and Garner’s Lane - originate from a family who have lived in Sutton Bridge and the local area since before the beginning of the 19th Century. Garner’s Lane leads to the farm that is owned by one branch of the Garner family.
Garner’s Wharf has, since 1996, been turned into apartments and the warehouse almost opposite Garner’s Wharf is also an apartment block, now known as Quay Flats. The two-storey warehouse was built between 1836 and 1850 and the archway (now bricked up on the riverside) gave access to a wooden quay. This projected into the river but was dismantled because it was considered unsafe.
The Warehouse c.1910: horses and carts laden with corn sacks waiting to be shipped.
The photograph, probably taken in the early part of the 20th Century, shows horses and carts load with sacks (of grain) outside the warehouse waiting to be shipped. This was when the both the warehouse and the granaries , which were apparently owned by Guy’s Hospital, were sold in 1919. It is difficult to work out the name above the archway but an earlier owner was the Sutton Bridge Corn Co. Using a magnifying class it is possible to work out that there appear to be two names on the board, which may be Gregorys & Hampson Ltd, one of the early owners of the warehouse. Judging by the lorry in the photograph with solid tyres, it suggests that the photograph was taken early in the twentieth century.
The quayside (postwar) after the Warehouse and the Wharf had been purchased by
Sidney Garner & Sons Ltd.
In 1940, Sidney Garner & Sons Ltd bought both buildings to carry out their corn, seed and fertiliser business. They also occupied the Old Chapel, in Bridge Road, now the Pizza take-away outlet. It was from here that they carried out the seed cleaning process, having transferred the heavy machinery to the Granaries. Leslie, one of the Garner sons explained that the process involved feeding the seed in at one end, blowing it , adding seed dressing and bagging in sacks for farmers to sow.
The warehouse was commandeered in 1940 to house troops returning from Dunkirk. It was also used as a storage depot for emergency rations.
The Police House, Sutton Bridge
In the photograph, two sergeants and seven constables - that’s the size of the Police Force once upon a time in Sutton Bridge. I wonder if anyone knows their names? Before the war, a large police presence was an everyday occurrence in the village. Quite different from today’s community police that are based in Holbeach and are shared between several villages. However, the port was busier then and the need for police watchfulness was greater than today, although not everyone would necessarily agree with that. But times have changed and policing has changed too.
Sutton Bridge Police Force before the War
The policemen used to live on the premises of the police station. Opposite Custom House Street, in Wharf Street, is the Old Police Station.
The Police House today, now private dwellings.
After the War the police house was no longer needed and was put up for sale and Leslie Garner bought the premises and offered to sell the Police House – the Sergeant’s house - to Jack Earley, who had recently come to live in Sutton Bridge. Leslie kept the adjoining police station and lived there himself. This comprised of two cells, which were downstairs and one of which he made into a tiny kitchen. Above this was a dormitory which four single policemen shared. Leslie created a bathroom in part of this.
Because the house didn’t have a number — it was simply called the Police House — Leslie suggested that Jack should call his part 1a and he would name his part One Bee. This name can still be seen on the gate to the front entrance.
The RAF Memorial at Sutton Bridge
The Royal Air Force Memorial at Sutton Bridge
Some people may not know that the RAF Memorial, close to the Cross Keys Swing Bridge, was erected in 1993 by the Fenland & West Norfolk Aircraft Preservation Society, working alongside Sutton Bridge Parish Council. Nor, perhaps, do they know that the propeller came from a Hurricane aircraft, Serial Number N2529, that crashed on the 21st March 1941 at Terrington St John, a few miles away.
When the old Sutton Bridge airfield site was designated an area for industrial development, the F&WNAP Society wanted to preserve the memory of the airfield and all the servicemen who trained there, and proposed the erection of a suitable memorial.
The pilot of the Hurricane, Sergeant R.W. Read from 56 Operational Training Unit, based at RAF Sutton Bridge, bailed out before his aircraft plummeted into a field, and he came down with his parachute at Tilney St Lawrence. As he descended his parachute caught on the chimney of a cottage, slamming him into a wall so hard that he was knocked unconscious. The force of the impact also stopped his watch! Local people rushed to his assistance and after removing him from his parachute harness, gave him a couple of tots of whisky, and then transported him to RAF Sutton Bridge in the back of a horse and cart. On his arrival he stated that he felt fully recovered from his ordeal (the crash or the cart ride?)!
Another interesting fact is that the bent tip of the propeller blade mounted on the Memorial, intentionally points towards the remains of the former site of RAF Sutton Bridge. The rest of the aircraft’s remains are in the Society’s Museum at Bambers Leisure Centre, on the B198 (Old Lynn Road), West Walton PE14 7DA, where they can be seen with many other exhibits during the opening hours of 9-30 am- 5-00pm Sat/Sun & Bank Holidays, and Wednesdays 1pm-4-30pm, from the last weekend in March until the last weekend in October, 2011.
Contacts: Museum. Tel 01945 461771. Website: www.fawnaps.webs.com
(Written from information supplied by Bill Welbourne of the Fenland & West Norfolk Aircraft Preservation Society)