Old Gunthorpe Bridge (1)

One day - in about 1870 - when the wife and children of George Beaumont (the Land Surveyor, of East Bridgford) were in their carriage crossing the Trent by the ferry on their way to Lowdham to catch a train to Scarborough, the chain of the ferry broke and they were all swept away some distance downstream. Happily no-one was hurt, but it led to George, with other local proprietors, putting up the capital to build a bridge at Gunthorpe.

Profits were at first 'elusive' and there was also a scare one winter when the river froze, and when the thaw started, great blocks of ice threatened to bring down the bridge. 

Only when motor traffic started to increase did the enterprise start to become profitable but it was never hugely so and in 1927 they - or rather their successors - were relieved to be taken over by the County Council, for the sum of £9,500.

The above is from the notes of my uncle, R.M.Beaumont

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The bridge stood somewhat to the east of its replacement, and I think the toll house is still standing.

These pictures were taken by my father in the late 1920s.

The first picture was taken from the East Bridgford side. The second, from the Lowdham side, shows the bridge already partly dismantled.

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Another version of the story comes from notes written by my father:- "In the seventies Emma [George's wife] was taking a load of children on holiday to Scarborough when the ferry across the Trent got washed downstream, the chain having broken, and they missed their train at Lowdham. George was so angry that he helped to promote a private company which built the Gunthorpe Toll Bridge. My father managed the Company until the bridge was demolished in about 1926 when the present bridge was built and opened by the Prince of Wales. All the subscribers got their money back, but my father was very scornful of the compensation which was paid by the County Council because with the increase in motor traffic the enterprise was only just becoming profitable."

I think the truth may be that it showed signs of becoming very profitable, so from the perspective of the shareholders it was taken away from them just at the wrong time, and after they had provided a public service for 50-odd years.

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Some newspaper reports that I have gleaned:-

George Beaumont (my great-grandfather) was the Honorary Secretary of the Gunthorpe Bridge Society, and shareholders at the first ordinary company meeting, which was held at the George Hotel in Nottingham in January1876, expressed their thanks to him for the exertions which have so long been given [by him] in the cause of this bridge; in reply, George said he himself held nearly one third of the shares and that it was a pleasure to him to try to make the best of it, he desired to pay a fair dividend, and the bridge itself was a fitting and useful memorial of his connection to it... (Notts. Guardian 28 Jan.1876).

By early 1903 Charles Beaumont (my great uncle) was the Secretary of the Gunthorpe Bridge Company. He reported at the half yearly meeting, again at the George Hotel, that the Company had taken about £194 in tolls in the half year to Dec.18 and a dividend of about £93 was to be paid (Nottm. Evening Post 11 Febr. 1903).

But Charles died in 1904 and his younger brother R.H. Beaumont (my grandfather), then practising as a solicitor in Nottingham, took over. The Evening Post report (14 January 1905) shows that this meeting took place at Eldon Chambers in Wheeler Gate (which was where grandfather had his office). The Rev. Canon Godber was in the chair, and those others present included Capt. W. Sherbrooke, and Messrs C.W.Maltby, ?.F. Manning, W. Stanton, J.M.Hind, and T.W.Hoskinson, besides of course grandfather. The tolls taken had been £126 for the quarter ending in September but only £73 for the quarter ended in December, and some painting work had been carried out or needed to be done. The dividend was only to be one 1 per cent, but there was a hope of returning to a 2 1/2 per cent dividend in the future.