We were due to leave on the afternoon tide and had got to West Stockwith as we had booked our lunch at the White Hart where we had a lovely meal and a pint of their own beer.
On our way back to the boat we had a walk to the lock and saw the river was still falling. We were booked out at 14:30. In the photo you can see the winch that was used to assist the sailing keeps etc into the lock against the tide.
We were on our way on schedule and seemed to be soon at Morton Bight. There is a large bend in the river and it was quite fearsome to arrive here on a seagoing vessel with a good tide boiling up. As you turn the bend the tide is pushing you on to the bank. Very decent of them to concrete the wall to ensure maximum damage if you got it wrong! Not that it happened often, and not to us this day.
We were soon passing through Gainsborough and under the bridge. The pilotage district finishes on the far side of the bridge for some reason. The bridge was completed in 1791 and was then the only bridge down stream of Newark. It was a toll Bridge, but in 1927 it was purchased for £130,000 by the local councils and made free in 1932.
As we passed Torksey Cut and the lock we could see there were a few boats waiting for the tide to go on the Witham or up to Keadby.
We were soon at Dunham Bridge.The building of a bridge here was first mooted in 1792 but nothing happened. Once more in 1812 but it wasn't until 1829 that things really got started and by the middle of 1830 a bill had passed through Parliament and had got Royal Assent and the work went out to tender. It was won by T. Booth of Sheffield Park. It was 110' span with 4 cast iron arches. The Civil Engineer was George Leather Jnr. was the Consulting Civil Engineer. The foundation stone was to be laid at the start of March 1831 but high water and strong currents flooded the casement and it had to be delayed until the end of the month. The Dunham Bridge Company was set up with £14,250 already raised to obtain further funds shares were sold at £50 each. 129 were sold in the end. The bridge opened for pedestrians in early April 1832 and a little ahead of schedule for other users on 21st April. Foot passengers were charged 1d for there and back in 12 hours.
Dunham Old Bridge
Part of the deal to set up the Bridge Company and to obtain Parliamentary approval was that the ferry had to bought out. The ferry man was David Laing and he worked a large ferry, called a Wain, or wagon boat and a large horse boat as well as a smaller horse boat. In 1820 they were still feeling secure so they had new Wain and small horse craft built, and their large horse boat refurbished. The old wain and small horse boat were for sale. The tolls were let at auction after a couple of years. In 1833 the tolls amounted to £362. They were auctioned for three years at a time It appeared that the venture did not bring riches as no dividends were paid on the shares, but it did revive the Dunham Market and it is interesting to see that in September 1848 there was 6 to 8 tons of Trent side cheese for sale fetching 50s to 59s per cwt (hundredweight).
It wasn't until the the coming of the motor car that the Dunham Bridge really started making money for the investors. £50 shares were changing hands for 10s in 1858 but by 1926 they were valued at £1000! The bridge has been inaccessible many times over the years but only because the roads leading to it have been covered in water to several feet deep in 1852 meant that a herd of cattle were kept on the bridge and feed there as the ony dry land they could reach. In 1936 the Lincolnshire buses instituted a boat on each side during floods. Passengers transferred to a boat from the road to take them to the bridge that they crossed on foot to another boat that took them to the the bus on the other side. That's what you call service.
In the above picture is the modern bridge that was completed in 1979. It was built on the old piers though, much reducing the costs I suppose. Whilst this bridge was being built a temporary Bailey bridge was erected between the two bridges present. Over the years, since the popular use of the motor car there have been calls for the authorities to buy out the bridge and make it toll free. In 1928 this happened to Gunthorpe Bridge and in 1932 Gainsborough Bridge (Town Bridge) became toll free after being purchased by the local authorities in 1927. In 1950 the Ministry of Transport confirmed that they had no money to assist the local authorities and local town councils to purchase the bridge, that would have been making a lot of money at that time. In 1994 the Dunham Bridge Company were confident enough to build new toll booths doubling the number of lanes to four, reducing queues. The last toll rise was in 2013 when the cost of a car crossing was 40p (8s). In 1922 the price was reduced from 2s to 1s as the bridge was making embarrassing amounts of money. In 1899 a one horse carriage was 1s3d, two horse 2s and the newly arrived motor car was 4s. The current bridge is penciled in to be replaced in 2078 and at current costs should be around £70 million!
The water main bridge with the old arches of the first Dunham bridge behind.
The more impressive bridge behind the modern road bridge was completed in 1910 and carries 4 x 21" water pipelines from the boreholes near Elkersely, south of Retford, the 23 miles to Lincoln.
By the time we reached Cromwell Lock the keeper and had long gone and it was just getting dark. I had called him to say we wouldn't make it before he logged off, we just spent the night on the jetty below the lock and penned up with two other cruisers who were waiting below too.
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