The stone bridge that carries the Hartbury road over the River Seabrook was built in about 1748. Members sometimes ask what stood there before it. The answer is a wooden bridge, and the Society can say very little more than that with confidence.
The earliest record is of the track and not of the bridge. Before 1700 a rough track followed the river down to the cove, where there were a handful of fishermen’s cottages, a small jetty and a chapel near the place where All Hallows now stands. The track is said to have crossed the river where the stone bridge is today.
No drawing of the wooden bridge is known. The Society holds no account of its building or of its repair. The date of 1748 for its replacement is the one the Society has always used, and it is approximate.
There is a story that the old timbers were carried down to the harbour and built into the first proper quay. The quay was not begun until the following century, so the timbers would have been lying about for fifty years or more. The Society does not say it did not happen. It says that nobody wrote it down.
The Society would be glad to hear from any reader who holds a deed, a map or a family paper that mentions the crossing before 1748. The room above the library is open on Tuesday afternoons. The annual general meeting is in April.
Ronald Briggs
Chairman