Maps
Map: CAMPING: Bridge House Caravan Site, Clifton Hampden, Abingdon, Oxon.
OX14 3EH. 01865 407725
30 pitches, April to
October, WC, showers, laundry, wash basins, shop.
1910: Clifton Hampden Bridge in
Thames Valley Villages by Charles G Harper
Downstream from the bridge on the right bank side was an island (Knapps Ayt)
The original settlement would have been there because the river was fordable in summer.
1607: Clifton Ferry. The ferryman used to sit in the inglenook fireplace in the Barley Mow,
watching for customers through the window.
1677:-
... about midsummer a sturgeon eight feet long was take up at Clifton Ferry in County Oxon by some of the family of Dunch of Witman [Wittenham]. Dr John Lamphire eat some of it and Hen[ry] Price of the Blew Boare [?Abingdon] dressed it.
1692: Baskervile – “At Clifton fferry is a
great boat to carry horse & man over.”
1792: Samuel Ireland -
FROM Long Wittenham the river winds suddenly towards Clifton, a village in Oxfordshire, where the combination of objects is truly picturesque. A small church, situated on a richly variegated bank, rising almost perpendicularly on the border of the river, (on which the traffic of the ferry-boats gives a perpetually moving picture) cannot but attract the eye of observation. The water here is remarkably shallow, yet perfectly transparent, and beautifully reflects the clear and gravelly bed of the river.
1834: Pedestrian’s Tour – the ferry boat “continually passing to and fro”
1863: Bridge Planning, Sheila Llewellyn The View from the Bridge -
Henry Hucks Gibbs had been entertaining the eminent Victorian architect, George Gilbert Scott,
and had complained to him that those of his domestic and estate staff who lived in Long Wittenham
were often late for work having missed the ferry.
Scott is said to have shot his linen shirt cuff and drawn on it with a pencil, out-lining
a design for a seven-arched bridge, altered later to six arches, the building
of which would leave the staff with no excuse for lateness.
1864: In the Gibbs' family records -
I Henry Gibbs Hucks built the bridge, Homfray being the engineer, and Gilbert Scott the architect.
The cost was £3,617-15s-10d of which no less than £686-12s-6d was for Parliamentary expenses,
including £200 for fees.
[ Probably none of the three named above actually got their hands dirty. The man who did the work
was Richard Casey who also built the Toll House and became its first keeper. ]
Here he is in later life, with his wife -
Richard Casey, Builder and Toll keeper of Clifton Hampden Bridge, with his wife
And this was Richard Casey's house - the toll house -
Clifton Hampden Bridge Toll House
And these were the tolls he was charged to impose:
| CLIFTON HAMPTON BRIDGE TOLLS PAYABLE AT THIS BRIDGE. | |||
| For every horse, or other beast, drawing any coach, stage coach, omnibus, van, caravan, sociable, Berlin, Landau, chariot, vis-a-vis, barouche, Phaeton, wagonette, chaise, marino, caleche, curricle, chair, gig, dog-cart, Irish cart, whiskey, hearse, litter or any like carriage: | Six pence | For every calf, Pig, Sheep, or Lamb: | One farthing or for a score, Five pence |
| For every Carriage drawn or propelled by steam or any means otherwise than animal power, such tolls as are authorised by "The Locomotive Act, 1864" | |||
| For every Horse or other Beast drawing and Waggon, Wain, Cart, or other like Carriage: | Four pence | For every Foot passenger not being the driver of and engaged in driving or leading any Waggon, Wain, Cart, or other like Carriage: | One Penny |
| For every Horse or Mule, Laden or unladen and not drawing: | One penny and one half penny | For every person riding in or upon any Waggon, Wain, Cart, or other like Carriage, or riding upon any Horse or Beast, drawing any Waggon, Wain, Cart, or other like Carriage, and not being the driver of the same: | Half penny |
| For every Ass drawing or carrying more than one person: | One penny | For every person with a Truck, Wheelbarrow, Perambulator or such like conveyance: | One penny |
| For every Ox, Cow, Bull, or neat Cattle: but for all such cattle in one drove exceeding ten in number: |
One penny One penny each for the first ten, and one Half penny each for the rest. | ||
| 14th Dec 1864, BY ORDER. G J M Burnett | |||
[ And for breathing within sight of the bridge? Actually to be fair to Clifton Hampden this was a
nationally used scale of charges. ]
1870: View of Clifton Hampden Bridge -
Clifton Hampden Bridge, 1870
1873: Taunt's Map and Guide to the Thames -
Clifton Bridge is a neat new brick structure, spanning the river in place of the old ferry; and close below, on the top of a sharp bluff, is the very pretty church.
1877: Clifton Hampden Bridge, Henry Taunt -
Clifton Hampden Bridge, Henry Taunt, 1877
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT02043
1881: George Leslie -
The bridge is of red brick, with ribbed Tudor arches, which will become very beautiful when age has toned them a little.
1885: Dickens's Dictionary of the Thames -
[Clifton Hampden] derives some importance from the new red brick bridge with six pointed arches, built by the lord of the manor in place of the ferry which formerly existed here, the towing-path crossing the river at this point. The toll for horses not drawing vehicles is 1½d., and for foot passengers 1d.
1887: Bridge repaired
1891: The Stream of Pleasure, Joseph & Elizabeth Robbins Pennell -
Once Ruskin, as he stood here by the river with the light of sunset falling upon it,
and watched the flaming and fading of the pools among the rushes,
and the water hurrying from under the brick arches,
saw a little boy run from one side of the bridge to the other,
and lean far over the parapet with eyes fixed on the current beneath.
Of what was he thinking, this little boy? Was it of the hurry of the water,
of the beauty of the evening, or had this speed and loveliness already
awakened him to higher and holier thoughts?
And as Ruskin wondered, a boat drifted from under the arches into the light,
and the little boy, leaning still lower, spat upon the oarsmen,
and dodged quickly and ran away, and Ruskin went home a sadder, if a wiser, man.
I've met that little boy - and quite accurate he was too!
1906: G.E.Mitton -
The bridge is of red brick, and, with a little toning by weather, will make a capital accessory.
1920: Thacker – "Built", says Dredge, "professedly to match
Abingdon and Culham Bridge".
(He adds: "It appears to me to have been diablement changé en route".)
1929: A Thames Survey -
Clifton Hampden Bridge built entirely of brick about 1863 and repaired in 1887. It consists of five brick arches of varying spans plus an additional arch for flood-water on the Berkshire bank. The bridge is well designed and the bricks are of a pleasant colour and texture. There are no side-walks but triangular recesses over the piers for the safety of pedestrians. Tolls payable at toll-house on the Berkshire side.
1960: Clifton Hampden Bridge, Francis Frith -
1960: Clifton Hampden Bridge, Francis Frith
1976:-
As an experiment, before we had all become so conservation and environment-conscious,
the children of the junior class of Clifton Hampden Village School placed a message in
a glass coffee jar and threw it over the bridge parapet into the river.
It negotiated 28 locks and weirs, floated out of the Thames Estuary, and crossed the channel.
Ten months later it was washed up unbroken on the beach at St. Malo in Brittany and
found by Isabelle, Sylvie and Vero Drevivier who were enjoying their Christmas holiday.
When they returned home to Tours they answered the message from the Clifton children,
who received the reply three hundred and sixty days from the date of 'posting'.
'Highly remarkable and slightly reprehensible'
was the comment of a Thames Water Authority elderly spokes-aunty.
1999: Sheila Llewellyn in The View from the Bridge –
There is a remarkable narrow bridge over the River Thames at Clifton Hampden in Oxfordshire,
with six elegant arches. It is said to resemble the medieval bridge at Albi south of Nantes in France,
though it was built of local bricks.
When you stand in one of the small triangular embrasures above the cutwaters, which thrust
upstream into the current, and look around you, it is a peaceful scene, idyllic on a sunny day.
Swans, all ringed as cygnets and kept track of, glide in a little bay near the bank,
and in their season there are bulrushes and rafts of yellow water lilies.
Beneath your feet the water flows smoothly ...
This is the medieval bridge at Albi - look at its scale, height, design, type of river, setting -
Is Albi Bridge like Clifton Hampden Bridge? Well there is a church downstream on the left bank
Clifton Hampden Bridge in 2004
Clifton Hampden Bridge, Doug Myers © 2005
(The Barley Mow, Clifton Hampden)
Estuary
PLA
QEII Br
Barrier
Tower Br
Custom Ho
London Br
; Frost Fairs
Cannon St Rb
The Great Stink
Southwark Br
Millenium Br
Blackfriars Rb
Blackfriars Br
Waterloo Br
Charing Cross Rb
Westminster Br
Lambeth Br
Vauxhall Br
Victoria Rb
Chelsea Br
Albert Br
Battersea Br
Battersea Rb
Wandsworth Br
Fulham Rb
Putney Br
Hammersmith Br
Barnes Rb
Chiswick Br
Kew Rb
Kew Br
RICHMOND
Twickenham Br
Richmond Rb
Richmond Br
TEDDINGTON
Kingston Rb
Kingston Br
Ditton Slip
Hampton Br
MOLESEY
SUNBURY
Walton Br
Desborough Cut
SHEPPERTON
Chertsey Br
CHERTSEY
M3 Br
Laleham Slip
PENTON HOOK
Staines Rb
Staines Br
Runnymede Br
BELL WEIR
Magna Carta Is
OLD WINDSOR
Albert Br
Datchet
Victoria Br
Black Potts Rb
ROMNEY
Eton
Windsor Br
Windsor Rb
Windsor Slip
Elizabeth Br
BOVENEY
Dorney Lake
York Cut
Summerleaze Fb
MonkeyIsland
New Thames Br
BRAY
Bray Slip
Maidenhead Rb
Maidenhead Br
Below Boulters
BOULTERS
Cliveden
Hedsor
COOKHAM
Cookham Slip
Cookham Br
BourneEnd RFb
Quarry Woods
A404 Br
MARLOW
Marlow Br
Bisham
TEMPLE
HURLEY
Medmenham
Culham Ct
Aston Slip
HAMBLEDEN
Temple Is
Fawley Ct
Remenham
Regatta
Phyllis Ct
Henley Slip
Leander
Red Lion
Henley Br
Angel on Br
Landing
Hobbs Boatyard
Hobbs Slipway
MARSH
Hennerton
Bolney
Wargrave
Shiplake Rb
R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE
Sonning Br
SONNING
Dreadnought
K&A Canal
CAVERSHAM
Reading Br
Caversham Br
Reading Slip
Purley
MAPLEDURHAM
Hardwick Ho
Whitchurch Br
WHITCHURCH
Hartswood Reach
Gatehampton Rb
Goring Gap
Goring Br
GORING
Swan
CLEEVE
Moulsford
Moulsford Rb
Papist Way Slip
Winterbrook Br
Wallingford Br
BENSON
Shillingford Br
R.Thame
DAYS
Burcot
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Church
Clifton H Br
Barley Mow
Long Wittenham
CLIFTON
Appleford Rb
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Br
CULHAM
Culham Cut Fb
Abingdon Slip
Abingdon
Abingdon Br
ABINGDON
Nuneham Rb
Nuneham
Nuneham Park
Radley Boats
SANDFORD
Rose Island
Kennington Rb
Isis Br
Iffley Mill
IFFLEY
Oxford Rowing
Isis
Donnington Br
Riverside Slip
Boathouses
Punting
Lower Cherwell
Upper Cherwell
Islip
Head of River
Salters Steamers
Folly Br
Bacons Folly
Oxford Fb
Osney Fb
Weir stream
Osney Rb
Bullstake Stream
Osney Marina
OSNEY
Osney Br
Four Rivers
OLD RIVER
CANAL
Medley Weir Site
Medley Fb
Bossoms
Perch
Trout
GODSTOW
Godstow Nunnery
Godstow Br
Thames Br
KINGS
River Evenlode
EYNSHAM
Swinford Br
Oxford Cruisers
PINKHILL
Farmoor
Stanton Harcourt
Bablock Slip
Arks Weir Site
NORTHMOOR
Harts Fb
//Rose Revived
Newbridge
//Maybush
River Windrush
below Shifford
SHIFFORD
Shifford Fb
Tenfoot Fb
Trout Inn
Tadpole Br
RUSHEY
Old Mans Fb
RADCOT
Radcot Cradle Fb
Swan Inn
Radcot New Br
Radcot Old Br
GRAFTON
Eaton Hastings
Kelmscott
Eaton Fb
BUSCOT
Bloomers Hole Fb
Trout Inn
St Johns Br
ST JOHNS
Halfpenny Br
Marina Slip
LIMIT
Inglesham
Hannington Br
Kempsford
Castle Eaton Br
Marston Meysey
A419 Br
Cricklade
SOURCE?
THAMES HEAD
SEVEN SPRINGS