Author Topic: (*Completed with thanks*)Help identifying this bridge please.  (Read 8011 times)

Offline artifis

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #9 on: Sunday 11 February 18 17:09 GMT (UK) »
I suspect that it's a railway bridge, if you look to the left of the bridge there's a five branch telegraph pole and there appears to be a swathe of wires going from it across to the right - I've had a play about with the photo and it seems that there are a lot there but fuzzy due to the photo not being in sharp focus.  Telegraph wires frequently followed railway lines and with that number it must have been a connection between sizeable towns.

Can you tell from the photo album if there's any sequence in the dating of the photos before and after the bridge on, that might give a bit of a clue?

I've also noted that beyond the bridge there's a substantial wall dropping down to the right, probably a retaining wall.  Could that indicate a station down to the right.

I've followed all of the defunct railway lines from the Arun valley line across to Midhurst, Shoreham to Christ's Hospital south of Horsham and Christ's Hospital westwards as far as is traceable and I can't find a bridge like this one.  I also can't find one on the main lines up through the Arun Valley.

I also looked at the Arun and Wey canal and couldn't find anything there either.

I guess it's possible that the bridge and/or houses have been demolished/replaced.

Intriguing especially as it looks familiar but I can't place it!   :-\

Offline janan

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #10 on: Sunday 11 February 18 17:49 GMT (UK) »
I also think this bridge is over a railway - pretty sure the sign to right shows a steam train to warn of the railway.

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Offline jettejjane

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #11 on: Sunday 11 February 18 17:57 GMT (UK) »

Can you tell from the photo album if there's any sequence in the dating of the photos before and after the bridge on, that might give a bit of a clue?


Thank you for looking, much appreciated :) Sadly the photos in the album are all over the place, there is one of my christening in 1952 and on  next page my great grandparents in late 1890's  ???  Thank god I am more organized than my grandparents ;D ;D ;D ;D ;D
Redman, Jupp, Brockhurst of West Sussex
Moore County Down. Redman of Posey, Indiana, USA Emigrated 1820

Offline jettejjane

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #12 on: Sunday 11 February 18 18:00 GMT (UK) »
I also think this bridge is over a railway - pretty sure the sign to right shows a steam train to warn of the railway.



Thank you. Think I should widen my search a bit as there is nothing to say its Sussex just because my family didn't venture far out of the county.  Although I feel it is somewhere in Sussex. 
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Offline John915

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #13 on: Sunday 11 February 18 19:37 GMT (UK) »
Good evening,

The road sign to left of bridge is a warning sign, triangle in circle point up, 1930s style. It says "slow major road ahead" . In the 50s a newer range of signs with inverted triangles came into force.

There is a rd going down by wall but also a rd going up beyond hedge and the sign tells us it goes left as well.

The sign to the right is a railway information sign probably, telling people to beware of trains and not to trespass on the lines. The only sign with a steam train is the one for a crossing with no gates.

Telegraph wires followed the railways because they mainly connected stations and signal boxes. Phones in houses were not so common in those days but some of the wires would be for that purpose.

My guess is West Sussex but could be anywhere.

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Offline jettejjane

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #14 on: Sunday 11 February 18 21:11 GMT (UK) »
John that is fantastic thank you so much. Still wondering what the connection is with my grandparents. These were the only pics without family members in them. Must mean something and yes I think West Sussex just a gut feeling.
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Offline sugarbakers

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #15 on: Sunday 11 February 18 21:55 GMT (UK) »
The sun is high for the shadows of the chimneys to be falling on the low wall on left ... so we are looking roughly east.
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Offline artifis

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #16 on: Monday 12 February 18 09:32 GMT (UK) »
The sun is high for the shadows of the chimneys to be falling on the low wall on left ... so we are looking roughly east.

That's a good clue, means the railway and the road beyond the bridge run north-south.

The bridge doesn't look too wide say for a double line railway so I suspect it was a single track railway branch line. If that is the case then it's probably long gone since Beeching's days.

When I followed the abandoned lines on Google Maps aerial view I was looking for a bridge but I've realised that as it is a single width road across the bridge it might well have been demolished after the railway closed to allow a double width road approach to the 'T' junction ahead.  I'll look again on that basis looking for the houses which hopefully have survived.

Offline John915

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Re: Help identifying this bridge please.
« Reply #17 on: Monday 12 February 18 10:25 GMT (UK) »
Good morning,

The sun is high for the shadows of the chimneys to be falling on the low wall on left ... so we are looking roughly east.

The shadows are quite long to reach right across the rd like that. So I would say either mid morning or mid afternoon. That could give us a north westerly or south easterly direction.

Whilst not always the case, many rail bridges were left when going over the tracks. Rail bridges over rds were taken down sometimes to allow larger vehicles through.

Poor old Dr Beeching gets the blame all the time but something like 60% of closed branch lines took place before his closures. Some were later than that as well.

John915
Stephens, Fuller, Tedham, Bennett, Ransome (Sussex)
Rider (Fulham)
Stephens (Somerset)
Kentfield (Essex)