Time for a mystery and a request from a TD commenter.
Are there any specialists here who could shed light on this bridge? It is one that has appeared on an Aldershot canal in 1939. There is no evidence of it today and so I am assuming it is a temporary army bridge but there seems to be a lot of speculation and not much fact. The counterweight seen in it’s reflection might hold some clue maybe?
The bridge in question
And zoomed
After consulting my big book of bridges It doesn’t look like a military bridge per se but it still might have been built for military use or by the Royal Engineers.
The image originates from here
http://www.historicfarnborough.co.uk/gallerymisc.html
So if it is in the Aldershot/Farnborough area it is probably over the Basingstoke Canal.
The Basingstoke Canal Society has a very good website
http://www.basingstoke-canal.org.uk/
With a full list of bridges
http://www.basingstoke-canal.org.uk/bridges/brlist.htm
If I had to hazard a guess it would be
http://www.basingstoke-canal.org.uk/bridges/brclay.htm
But that would be a wild guess
Anyone shed any light on this?
Does not look unlike the Claycart Military Drawbridge http://www.basingstoke-canal.org.uk/bridges/brclay.htm
TD
I realise that’s the link you gave above so please delete my feeble posts and my Mea Culpa.
It’s not just the bridge but the tow path and the trees that suggest it is the Cathcart.
However I am sure I have seen that style of bridge elsewhere both in Holland and over an English Canal.
DV
Doesn’t look like the same bridge at all. The “mystery bridge” has a center support pier that is missing in the other pictures, and the “mystery bridge” doesn’t look like it was supported by a stone arch bridge remnant.
Kent you are right, the balance beams on the Cathcart are, on closer examination cable stayed this is wholly missing from the mystery bridge. Also the dates are wrong as the Cathcart was replaced in WWI according to the Bridgewater Canal Website.
My money is on Piller’s Bridge. Wooden structure, demolished 1930s, in a rural location with a common to the North (that’s left in the photo) and a copse about 100ft deep on the South bank, opening into common beyond. http://www.basingstoke-canal.org.uk/bridges/br53sandy.htm#pillers