Sonning Bridge
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Sonning Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames at Sonning, Berkshire. It is a beautiful historic brick arch bridge completed in 1775, to replace a wooden bridge built in 1604. It links Sonning (Berkshire) with Sonning Eye (Oxfordshire) and crosses the Thames on the reach above Shiplake Lock, just short of Sonning Lock.
A stone marker at the centre of the bridge is marked "B | O" (for the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire on each side of the river) with the vertical line indicating the exact boundary down the middle of the river. This is an ancient border which used to be between Wessex and Mercia.
The bridge is very picturesque and his been the subject of many paintings and prints by artists. The Thames Path crosses the river at this point.
Close to the bridge are the Great House, a hotel on the southern bank, the Mill at Sonning, now a theatre, on an island between two branches of the river, and the French Horn, another hotel on the northern bank.
Two more modern 20th-century bridges, Sonning Backwater Bridges, provide the link over the second branch of the river, the quieter "backwater" (as it is known locally), downstream of the weir and the millrace between the two main branches. These newer bridges replaced another wooden and rather rickety structure. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were complaints about the traction engines causing structural problems with the old wooden bridge and disturbing the peace, much as there is with the traffic today!
Sonning Bridge has traffic lights because it is too narrow for traffic in both directions simultaneously. It is the only road bridge across the Thames between Henley-on-Thames and Reading. Thus there are large queues during the morning and evening rush hours. An additional bridge to relieve the traffic problems has been a subject of debate for many years, but nothing has been done to alleviate the problem and there are no current plans in this direction.
It is rumoured that Dick Turpin used the bridge as an escape route from Berkshire to Oxfordshire to evade the authorities.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Images of Sonning Bridge from Google
- Sonning Bridge in the Structurae database
- Website with a picture
- Aerial view from WikiMapia
| Next crossing upstream | River Thames | Next crossing downstream |
| Caversham Lock (pedestrian) | Sonning Bridge Grid reference: SU755757 |
Shiplake Railway Bridge (rail) |
| Next crossing upstream | Thames Path | Next crossing downstream |
| southern bank Whitchurch Bridge |
Sonning Bridge & Sonning Backwater Bridges |
northern bank Henley Bridge |
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