Bridge bashing

[Fat Controller]

To return to bridge-bashing.. 30+ years ago, I had a job stripping out a motor factors next to the bridge at Glebe Street, Stoke. The bridge had been built to replace a level crossing at the southern end of Stoke station, and was very restricted (3.1 metres/ 10'3"). During one week, I saw three hits.

A skip-lorry, with the lifting beam half up.

A flat-bed, carrying a high stack of bales of wool

A (local) Leyland National, which lost the 'pod' off the roof

Apparently, that was an average week....

[PhilJ W]

They don't come any lower than this.

 https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/uks-lowest-bridge-just-30ins-24156164

[Wickham Green too]

How on earth did that get built ? ...... in relatively recent times !

[lmsforever]

You can putup all the warning signs you like but human nature being what it is there will always be a percentige of drivers will ignore any such signs.You see them driving over the speed limit parking badly overtaking dangerously  the only way to make them think is to fine them,take their licence away ,and via their insurance recover the cost of bridge repair etc .  lets hope NR is doing this to recover costs and is supported by the courts ,in the case of major national companies they should be made to emphasise vehicle trailer heights to drivers and take appriate action when transgressions occur.

[SamThomas]

1 hour ago, Wickham Green too said:

How on earth did that get built ? ...... in relatively recent times !

Looks to me that it may be over a canal & there is enough height from the water level for canal boats.

 

I may be wrong of course...........

[TheQ]

10 minutes ago, SamThomas said:

Looks to me that it may be over a canal & there is enough height from the water level for canal boats.

 

I may be wrong of course...........

But what about the horse towing the canal boat ... There are still one or two around..

[Wickham Green too]

If the towpath is a public right of way, that's one hell of an obstruction ! ( Yes, I was going to mention the horse - but TheQ beat me to it. )

[Reorte]

Says it's the M25 at Colne Brook, so not a canal (although it might be a navigable river used as one for all I know), but nevertheless the OS shows a public footpath there.

[boxbrownie]

2 hours ago, TheQ said:

But what about the horse towing the canal boat ... There are still one or two around..

Originally of course almost all drawn barges used mules, donkey or ponies……the large horses seen nowadays were used on farms, didn’t need their strength to pull a barge but a plough did.

 

But that’s semantics, that’s a silly footpath clearance.

[Hobby]

Many also used humans to pull the boats as well! 

[PhilJ W]

And humans 'legged' the canal boats through tunnels. But I very much doubt thats the reason for the low clearance.

[Wickham Green too]

I don't think there's enough clearance to 'leg' the roof - and too much to 'leg' the walls !

[corneliuslundie]

There are plenty of low bridges on disused canals where they have been lowered after closure. Interestingly this one seems to be at its original height.  But swans can get under.

 

Ans there are plenty of bridges over towpaths will less than 6 ft clearance.

Jonathan

[meil]

On 13/09/2021 at 11:45, Wickham Green too said:

How on earth did that get built ? ...... in relatively recent times !

There's a very similar one in Swindon. There is a Public footpath beneath.

[Derekl]

1 hour ago, corneliuslundie said:

There are plenty of low bridges on disused canals where they have been lowered after closure. Interestingly this one seems to be at its original height.  But swans can get under.

 

Ans there are plenty of bridges over towpaths will less than 6 ft clearance.

Jonathan

 

If that was really a canal (it does look like one), I can't see that the standard canal boat would fit under there, never mind people or horses. The tow path would be through the gates on the right. Even if the bridge were high enough to let a boat through, a horse would have to be detached to negotiate the bridge, which is not usual. I wonder if this was once a swing or lift bridge.

[Titan]

4 minutes ago, Derekl said:

 

If that was really a canal (it does look like one), I can't see that the standard canal boat would fit under there, never mind people or horses. The tow path would be through the gates on the right. Even if the bridge were high enough to let a boat through, a horse would have to be detached to negotiate the bridge, which is not usual. I wonder if this was once a swing or lift bridge.

 

I think it may be immediately after a disused lock - you often get bridges placed right after the lock gates.  When the chamber is empty and the water level has fallen to the lower level there is enough headroom to pass under. It does look like there may be some stop boards that are keeping the level up in the absence of the bottom gates.

[eastglosmog]

It is the Aberbechan bridge (151) on the Montgomeryshire Canal.  It used to be higher (about 7ft above water), so that a standard narrow boat would fit underneath. It is just north of the Aberbechan aqueduct.  It was lowered, some time in the late 1970s, I think, quite some time after the canal closed (1944), but the original fish bellied iron girders were reused and are still visible, as can be seen in Jonathan's photo.

[corneliuslundie]

I did wonder. I know that a lot of the bridges were "flattened" much earlier and the canal culverted in some places. 

Jonathan

[SM42]

There is this one on the Forth and Clyde Canal

 

https://goo.gl/maps/WLTNZjA6Rfc6Xq4E8

 

To get under it you enter the lock chamber, the water gets pumped out, sail under the bridge and the water is pumped back in

 

Andy

[ajwffc]

6 hours ago, SM42 said:

There is this one on the Forth and Clyde Canal

 

https://goo.gl/maps/WLTNZjA6Rfc6Xq4E8

 

To get under it you enter the lock chamber, the water gets pumped out, sail under the bridge and the water is pumped back in

 

Andy

even has a sign explaining it all

https://goo.gl/maps/wZs5j84FNkHc67b26

[Derekl]

15 hours ago, Titan said:

 

I think it may be immediately after a disused lock - you often get bridges placed right after the lock gates.  When the chamber is empty and the water level has fallen to the lower level there is enough headroom to pass under. It does look like there may be some stop boards that are keeping the level up in the absence of the bottom gates.

Ah yes, of course - and I have even passed through many such locks in a boat myself! Interesting, though, that the towrope would have to be disconnected from the towing horse to enable it to pass along the towpath and the boat to go through the bridge.

[Michael Hodgson]

Unless of course you can train Dobbin to hop aboard before the bridge and coast through.     

[Compound2632]

53 minutes ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Unless of course you can train Dobbin to hop aboard before the bridge and coast through.     

 

Was probably done. There was a great deal of horse-sense around. Perhaps that's what our society is lacking? (Vide Gulliver's Travels!)

[PhilJ W]

1 hour ago, Michael Hodgson said:

Unless of course you can train Dobbin to hop aboard before the bridge and coast through.     

They did.

[kevinlms]

2 hours ago, Derekl said:

Ah yes, of course - and I have even passed through many such locks in a boat myself! Interesting, though, that the towrope would have to be disconnected from the towing horse to enable it to pass along the towpath and the boat to go through the bridge.

Why unhitch the horse when there is this marvellous invention?

 

https://www.core77.com/posts/109086/Clever-Bridge-Design-Lets-Horses-Pulling-a-Barge-Cross-the-Canal-Without-Untying-Them