The Monday Photo

This bridge over the River Thame was built in the middle of the 18th Century, without a parapet. I’m sure it looked very elegant.

Probably alright if you know the bridge, but I wouldn’t like to go over it in a heavy fog! But by 1910 a rustic fence had been erected on both sides, as a photo from that year shows.

There’s a different and perhaps less obtrusive iron fence there now. Just as well, as a public footpath leads over the bridge. That photo, of the same side as in my photo today, also shows a carved stone face on the keystone, when I was there hidden under ivy.

The bridge is next to Bridge Lodge, the gatehouse on the Eythrope estate which was built for Alice de Rothschild some years after this bridge was finished. The estate is between Waddesdon and Stone.