Menai mystery

[chiefsub68]

Hi

Family lore has it that an ancestor of mine died when a dog leapt up and pushed him over the edge of one of the Menai bridges (between Anglesey and the mainland) during the opening ceremony.

Any help/confirmation of this would be gratefully received!

Will

[Kazza]

Hi there,

This is a tragic story.  If it is true I would be very surprised if it were not reported in one of the local papers.  Not being local to North Wales I don't know what these would be,  but I am sure it would be fairly easy to find out.

Have you tried the local papers?  If you cannot get access to them,  a letter to the editor may help.  Some larger papers keep their own archives,  and will search them for you.

Kazza.

[D ap D]

The 2 bridges are the Menai and the Brittania.

The Menai was built by Telford and opened on 30th Jan. 1826. There are several sites with newspaper articles covering the story.

One I've found, from the Chester Chronicle:
"This stupendous structure was opened for general intercourse on Monday, the 30th of January, at half past one in the morning"

Funny how the meanings of words change. You'd be arrested for that now. Or find a film of yourself on the internet!.

The other bridge, the Brittania, was built by Stephenson and was opened 5th March 1850.

A bit of history on the bridges is on:
http://www.anglesey-history.co.uk/places/bridges/

http://www.menaistraits.info/

You could also try the Anglesey archives at Llangefni. Anne Venables is very helpful, and would tell you which papers the report may be in.

Another thought: as this was one of the major projects of its time, have you tried the Times archives? The free trial runs out today.......

D ap D