River Welland and Deeping Gate Bridge

click photo to enlarge
I recently read Peter Ackroyd's fine book, "Thames: Sacred River", a work that examines the river that runs through our capital. I read of its early origins, its course from source to sea, its role in trade and commerce, how it was and is used for pleasure, the way artists and writers have depicted it, even how it was a conduit for the city's effluent and the steps taken to return it to life after being for so long, at least in London, little more than an open sewer, and much else. Through fifteen sections and forty five chapters, each of which almost stand alone, Ackroyd looks at the many facets of the Thames. At a number of places he discusses the sites where the river was bridged and the importance that early peoples assigned to such places. This is a subject that has long interested me, and one that I was thinking about when I took today's photograph.

In the British Isles a relatively high number of archaeological finds are associated with bridges. The weapons - swords, daggers, shields, spear etc - of early peoples have often been discovered in river beds near bridges or in the banks and land surrounding them. This is thought to indicate the high value, reverence even, that was placed on a crossing of of a river, the flow itself being seen as something akin to a life-force. The Romans shared this kind of esteem for flowing water and often placed altars by bridges. Medieval religious orders built bridges with chapels on them for similar reasons, but also as a means of raising funds for the maintenance of the crossing.

Deeping Gate bridge has the year 1651 carefully carved on one of the upstream cutwaters. There are no ribs on the underside of the arches, and these are rounded, not pointed. Both of these suggest that the date signifies when it was actually built rather than rebuilt or restored. Consequently it is very unlikely to be a crossing point that experienced the devotional offerings and activities described above. Today it continues to fulfil its original purpose as a crossing point, and now, as at the time it was built, the narrowness of the road means only one vehicle at a time can pass over it. On the day I photographed it the sky, the sun, the reflective surface of the river and the early autumn tints on the trees made a composition that, apart from the road signs and telegraph poles, could have been seen on and similar day over the past couple of hundred years.

For further information about this bridge and a couple more of my photographs of it see here and here.

photograph and text © Tony Boughen

Camera: Sony RX100
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 10.4mm (28mm - 35mm equiv.)
F No: f7.1
Shutter Speed: 1/400
ISO: 125
Exposure Compensation:  -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Autumn reflections at Deeping St James

click photo to enlarge
The earliest stone bridges in Britain - the clapper bridges - are simply large pieces of stone that span streams: sometimes just one, and on wider waters two or more with intervening supports. The technology of those early days didn't stretch to anything more elaborate and fashion wasn't a consideration; it was purely function that drove the design.

When arched bridges made of stone examples with semi-circular arches and pointed arches were often built during the medieval period. The Romans introduced the former, and the Gothic builders the latter, so it was these stone bridges were constructed from the C12 to the C15. In theory the pointed arch can span a wider waterway but the disadvantage is that it has to be built quite high to do so. Often a series of rounded arches with intervening piers was chosen instead, though many medieval bridges followed the fashion and have pointed arches. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, with the influence of the Rennaisance, fashion turned to semi-circular, rounded arches, and also to segmental arches which involve a segment of a circle smaller than 180 degrees on vertical piers. However, the technology had not developed to the extent that earlier features could be jettisoned.

Today's photograph shows the Deeping Gate Bridge over the River Welland at Deeping St James. It connects Cambridgeshire (the left bank) with Lincolnshire (the right). This structure was built in 1651, a date that is carved into the stonework on the upstream side, and is typical of its period. Gone are the pointed arches and ribs underneath that allowed stone bridges to be lighter, but the short spans, heavy piers, triangular cutwaters and simple chamfered decoration of the arches remains. Not until the next century would balustrades, niches, panelling, statuary, urns and segmental arches wide enough to span a small river appear.

I have photographed this bridge before, but stopping at it the other day I was tempted into another shot by the reflections, autumnal tints and saturated colours produced by the largely overcast sky. On this occasion I positioned myself downstream on a footbridge.

photograph & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 40mm (80mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/250
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -1.0 EV
Image Stabilisation: On

Deeping Gate Bridge

click photo to enlarge
In my working past I sometimes used to talk to groups of children about the importance of good manners. To illustrate my point I would often use the analogy of bicycle maintenance, observing that the purpose of oiling a bike chain is to lubricate it such that the links engage with the sprockets smoothly, with minimal friction. So, I would continue, good manners are like that oil, and enable people to get along better by reducing the friction between them. I think those who were keen cyclists might have understood my point, but probably the rest reflected that it was their father who maintained their bicycle and wondered what the old duffer at the front was on about.

The subject of today's photograph, the Deeping Gate Bridge at Deeping St James, Lincolnshire, would not work without good manners. A stone-built, three-arched structure, it was constructed in 1651 to cross the River Welland in both directions, a function it carries out to this day. However, when it was erected the traffic that used it would have been pedestrians, horses, farm animals, carts and carriages. Today's traffic is mainly a regular flow of any motor vehicles that will fit on its single track roadway, but also a regular sprinkling of walkers and cyclists. Passage over the bridge is not regulated by lights, so courtesy is required of the drivers to ensure that traffic keeps flowing. And flow it does, not with the calm serenity of the river below, but in spurts and gushes, first from one side, then the other, as drivers reciprocally give way to each other. Pedestrians crossing the bridge have triangular refuges at the top of each of the cut-waters, which accounts for these being not only on the upstream side, where they are necessary to divide the flow around the piers, but also on the downstream side (shown above).

During a recent longish walk by the River Welland, the bridge, its clear reflection, and the general setting with the C19 pub, thatched houses, trees and waterside plants all suggested a photograph. Had the ducks and swans further upstream been in the water nearby I could have composed using the full frame, but in their absence I took the shot knowing I was going to crop the bottom of the image.*

* Sometimes the first posting of my blog entries contains mangled prose, as the last paragraph of this one did today. However, my proof reader (aka my wife) invariably spots my lapses into gibberish, draws it to my attention, and a quick edit soon puts things right (or at least better).

photographs & text (c) T. Boughen

Camera: Olympus E510
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 14mm (28mm/35mm equiv.)
F No: f6.3
Shutter Speed: 1/500
ISO: 100
Exposure Compensation: -0.7 EV
Image Stabilisation: On