The Kent History Forum
Travel and Transport => River Crossings => Topic started by: Smiffy on September 14, 2019, 10:58:25 PM
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I wasn't sure whether to post this in railways or buses, but now we have a section for river crossings I thought it might be better to put it in here.
This photograph of a locomotive and bus crossing the old bascule bridge must have been taken before April 1960 as this is when the new bridge (visible on the right) was opened.
(https://i.postimg.cc/C5LM21L2/Kingsferry-Bridge.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
The engine is a C class locomotive built for the SECR in 1908. It was withdrawn on 30th November 1960 and cut up on 31st January 1961. Only one of this type has been preserved and can be seen on the Bluebell Railway.
The coach is a bit of a mystery to me, apart from the fact it's a Maidstone & District vehicle. Perhaps someone with more knowledge of buses could throw some light on the subject. The registration plate looks like WKM 362.
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WKM362 it is indeed. It tells us that the vehicle was first registered in Kent.
Out of sheer curiosity I did a Google search and found a newer picture which indicates that Maidstone and District sold it off to new owners in the Macclesfield area.
https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=20119 (https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=20119)
(just scroll down a picture or two)
Admin (Stuart) please note: I had wanted to give a "like" to smiffy's post, but it isn't an option on this category. Does it have to be turned on (or off) for individual categories?
Alec.
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I'll look into that Alec :D
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At the risk of going off topic, Smiffy did ask for more light on the coach in his original post https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=94616 (https://thetransportlibrary.co.uk/index.php?route=product/product&product_id=94616) (Invicta Alec's reference) https://www.flickr.com/photos/micastone/20600493234/in/photolist-xooUVQ-y3UWD6 (https://www.flickr.com/photos/micastone/20600493234/in/photolist-xooUVQ-y3UWD6) (model photo) https://www.classicbuses.co.uk/mdreg.html (https://www.classicbuses.co.uk/mdreg.html) (mentioned way down the page, rebuild and transferred to Macclesfield in April 1965)
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The South Eastern Railway built this first bridge in 1860 which for some reason was known as the Queen's Bridge. This was later replaced in 1906 by the bascule bridge featured earlier. What looks like the Lord Nelson pub is visible toward the right.
(https://i.postimg.cc/0Nf143dd/Queen-s-Bridge.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
There has been written elsewhere some erroneous information concerning an even earlier medieval bridge known as the Tremseth Bridge, which according to the historian Charles Igglesden was destroyed by a freak flood tide and never replaced. However, the Isle of Sheppey was at one time the Isles of Sheppey, with Harty and Elmley once separated from the main island, and this bridge actually connected Sheppey with Harty rather than Sheppey with the mainland. After it was lost, a ferry operated in its stead, until by the 18th century the dividing fleet became so completely silted up it was no longer needed.
From The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent by Edward Hasted, in reference to Harty:
"It appears by the pleas of the crown, in the 21st year of king Edward I taken before the justices itinerant, that there was formerly a bridge leading from hence into Shepey, then called Tremseth bridge, which had been broken down by a violent inundation of the sea, and the channel thereby made so deep, that a new one could not be laid, and therefore the inhabitants of Shepey, who before repaired it, maintained in the room of it two ferry-boats, to carry passengers to and fro".
"There is now no bridge here, and the fleet which divided this island from that of Shepey is become so very narrow, and has for several years past been so much filled up, that, excepting at high tides and overflow of the waters, Harty has ceased to have any appearance of an island".
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The "violent inundation" appears to have been in 1293.
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See page 7 of: Patience, Colin; Perks, Hugh (ARICS), St, Thomas the Apostle, Isle of Harty, published by the church
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MartinR, is this the publication you are referring to?
https://sheppeyhistory.uk/z-sheppey/churches/harty.html
I am assuming Capel gate is the location of the former ferry. It says that as late as 1893 the ferry house was still there but looking at maps from the same period I can find no trace of it.
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The South Eastern Railway built this first bridge in 1860 which for some reason was known as the Queen's Bridge. This was later replaced in 1906 by the bascule bridge featured earlier. What looks like the Lord Nelson pub is visible toward the right.
(https://i.postimg.cc/0Nf143dd/Queen-s-Bridge.jpg) (https://postimages.org/)
When i used to go to Loves Farm Leysdown owned by my Uncles Partners Son to stay in a caravan we always caught the saloon coach from Gillingham Bus Station along the Lower Rainham Road to this bridge .....this was 1955 and my Aunt called it the "Queens Ferry Bridge" then and she explained that whoever is the Monarch of the time the bridge is named King or Queen so this should explain why in 1860 it was known as the "Queens Ferry Bridge" after Queen Victoria then also after 1953 Queen Elizabeth II ....why it is now called Kings Ferry Bridge who know`s?
Further to the Coach i found my Bus book as i used to collect Bus Numbers when a kid as my Mum & Dad were at Gillingham Bus Station in the 1940/50`s
This coach was built 1956 and the construction is on the page noted in the picture.
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I believe there was a right granted to levy a toll on all strangers using the ferry by Henry IV in 1401 which could be the origin of the "Kings Ferry" title, although up until the 16th century it was referred to as the "Trinhide ferry" and later as "Trinhide, alias the King's Ferry" in written accounts.
Your bus book looks like it's in nearly mint condition.
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Interesting about the toll smiffy.....
As a kid I always cherished my material things..... All my Dinky Toys went back in the boxes after playing.
There are two books pictured the top left one is laying on the opened one which has a double decker on the front so suitable for the picture.
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See also http://www.sct61.org.uk/mdco362 (for the bus).
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I wonder what happened to WKM 362? Scrapped, probably.
Keith, I was the same with my Corgi's. I remember them being put up into the attic but I think they were all later given away to a younger relative.