History
The bridge has existed since at least 1375. It is recorded in 1617 as being in need or repair. The River Ingrebourne formed the boundary between the ancient parishes of Hornchurch and Upminster. However, upkeep of all bridges over the river were the responsibility of the Upminster parish authorities, as Hornchurch claimed exception due to the charter of the Royal Liberty of Havering. The wooden bridge was destroyed and replaced with another after the winter of 1709/10. Replacement wooden carriage bridges were constructed in 1759 and 1827 and an adjacent ford was in use up until the 19th century. A stone and brick structure was completed in 1892. The significance of the boundary was reduced in 1934 when both sides became part of Hornchurch Urban District. Upminster Bridge tube station opened in 1934.
Until its last replacement with railings in the 1980s by Havering London Borough Council, the bridge used to have two low height cast-iron plated bridge sides that were cast by the Whitechapel Bell Foundry, makers of Big Ben and other bells in the Houses of Parliament. A nearby pub used to bear the name The Bridge House but is now called The Windmill, after a brief period being the Hungry Horse.
Read more about this topic: Upminster Bridge
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“[Men say:] “Don’t you know that we are your natural protectors?” But what is a woman afraid of on a lonely road after dark? The bears and wolves are all gone; there is nothing to be afraid of now but our natural protectors.”
—Frances A. Griffin, U.S. suffragist. As quoted in History of Woman Suffrage, vol. 4, ch. 19, by Susan B. Anthony and Ida Husted Harper (1902)
“You treat world history as a mathematician does mathematics, in which nothing but laws and formulas exist, no reality, no good and evil, no time, no yesterday, no tomorrow, nothing but an eternal, shallow, mathematical present.”
—Hermann Hesse (1877–1962)
“We have need of history in its entirety, not to fall back into it, but to see if we can escape from it.”
—José Ortega Y Gasset (1883–1955)