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From: 156 Autumn 2022
Author: Peter Smith
A previous Journal article outlined the fascinating history of this extremely important wartime bridge format, situated at the Southern end of Port Meadow. Following this the Committee received a letter from a Freeman who witnessed the bridge being built 75 years ago. It contained a great anecdote that while the Royal Engineers were manually pushing the bridge out over the water, it stuck on its rollers. A burly Sergeant then added his brute strength to the effort, and the bridge edged slowly into position. The Mayor led 3 cheers at the end, for the engineers and in particular the Sergeant who saved the day!
To commemorate 75 years since its erection on 7th September 1947, and to raise greater local awareness of the bridge, I wrote an article for the Oxford Mail Memory Lane section that was published on Monday 5th September, and I gave 3 talks on the bridge during that week.
The first was on the anniversary date, a lunchtime talk on the 7th September at the Museum of Oxford (MOX) in their new education space. The highlight for me was during Q&A’s when first one elderly guest raised his hand to say he was there 75 years ago as a young schoolboy, and then a second did the same from the opposite side of the room! To have 2 guests present that were witness to an event 75 years ago was something special. They both recalled it vividly.
What made the occasion though, was that after the talk had closed, they came together to introduce themselves. It then transpired they were best friends at school back then in the late 1940’s and had lost touch decades ago. When they realised this, it was a special moment that brought a tear to the eye. They were delighted and planned to catch up.
The following weekend of 10th/11th September was the annual Oxford Open Doors event. I gave a 45 minute talk at the bridge on both days, the bridge fitting in well with the Oxford Preservation Trust’s sub theme of inventions and innovation. I was nervous beforehand about these talks, being used to standing in front of screen with slides as prompts, but both went well, were well attended, I didn’t fall in or fall over on the uneven bank, and I enjoyed them both a lot.
The idea was to explain the history of this bridge format, why it was there and to demonstrate its simple but highly innovative design, and clever solutions to practical gravity problems such a tilting and sagging. I brought along some clip on original bridge parts (I’m not a bridge nerd – honest!) that create a walkway along the outside of the bridge, some of the smaller core components and tools to explain its bespoke design and construction, and some A3 visual aid photos.
I used a small model I had made, to explain the tilting problem - when a fully completed bridge passes the half way point from the bank it would fall into the river/gap - and sagging issue - where even with a lightweight/skeletal front section to avoid tilting, the natural sag means the end of the bridge does not pass over the top of the opposite bank (in the Port Meadow bridges case that sag would be about a 2’ 6” over 100 ft). To resolve that, the front portion of the skeletal bridge section - the “launching nose” - was raised at an angle to ensure it caught the rollers on the opposite bank. All very clever and so simple.
The highlight of these talks was the enthusiastic Q&A afterwards and that, after the first talk, a lady introduced herself to me as the inventor, Sir Donald Bailey’s, granddaughter! A small world.
I hope to continue with these in situ talks when the opportunity arises, whether annually as part of Open Doors, and/or when the bridge is finally restored (hopefully) within the next few years.
The photos show the Oxford Mail article from 8th September 1947, with the only photo I have seen of the bridge being built, with its launching nose, and me at the bridge giving a talk.
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