92
THE ESSEX FIELD CLUB.
before the Chancellor of England and the Chief Justice on behalf of the King,
and it was enrolled that the said Abbot obliged himself to repair the Bridge
for ever, for which the Abbess gave him £200, yet saving to her the annual
four marks.
From the Patent Rolls we find that one Hugh Pratt, living near the said
Bridges and Causeway in the reign of King John, did, of his own authority,
begging the aid of passengers, keep them in repair, and, after, his son William
did the same, until the King's Justice obtained a toll for him ; and so the repairs
were made till Philip Bassett and the Abbot of Waltham, being hindered from
passing that way, broke down the iron railings and left it in ruins, till Queen
Eleanor, of her bounty, ordered it to be repaired, counting the charge of it to
William de Capella, keeper of her chapel. (There was a chapel on the Bridge
dedicated to St. Catherine.) The question of repairs to the Bridges and Cause-
way has been a question of dispute from that time even into the present
century, and the lawsuits in connection almost numberless.
In 1366 a toll was granted for the repair of Stratford Bridge, to continue
three years, it being very ruinous.
These particulars (a mere summary) are authentic ; and such description as
is given by Leland (temp. Hen. VIII.) is accurate, and bears out his general
trustworthiness. Stow, in his "Annals," gives an account which is manifestly
inaccurate, and not in accord with the Rolls, to which he probably had not
access, and, perhaps, knew not of their existence.
The original Bow Bridge consisted, in all probability, of seven arches ; although
but three were apparent in this century, the others being hidden in the cellars and
foundations of the adjoining houses, and mostly bricked up. Two of these arches
on the Essex side were discovered over one hundred years ago.
Some years ago I had access to a report, dated 5th January, 1828, in private
hands, concerning this Bridge, of which I made a copy, from which I will give a
few notes :
Mr. Walker, in 1827, was asked to report upon Bow Bridge. He was of
opinion that the original Bridge formed no part of it, unless some of the
foundations were original, as they were well below water-mark. Coffer dams were
not then known, and the course of the River was probably on the east side of the
present channel, so that the Bridge was built upon the only land on the Middlesex
side, and the river course subsequently turned under it by excavating a new channel
and filling up the old one—the sudden turn of the river appearing to support
this conjecture.
The extreme width of the Bridge was originally only 18 feet 3 inches, and
to increase this that pieces had been erected on the cut-water of the piers which
added to the width five feet on the Middlesex side and seven feet on the
Essex side. The arches for these additions were circular, and higher than the
old arches. The spans were 20 feet 3 inches, 22 feet 10 inches, and 20 feet
3 inches respectively ; total, 63 feet 4 inches.
The great flood of the year 1824 brought the water within two feet from
the centre of the mid-arch. The only footway was a wooden platform, seven
feet wide, resting on the pier end on the North side. The idea at that time
was to enlarge the Old Bridge, but Mr. Walker's report was in favour of an
entirely new Bridge.
No action, however, was taken for some years—until about 1835, when a
temporary bridge was erected ; and the present handsome structure of granite,