The Historic Bridges of Buckinghamshire

By Marshall G. Hall

Bridges have always played an important role on the social and economic history of human development, and Buckinghamshire has a great wealth of them. Trade systems and road networks must solve the challenges of geography’s waterways, and bridges, causeways, fords, and flood systems were necessarily a key aspect of the experience of historical travel. Bridges and river crossings anchored the Buckinghamshire road network in the landscape, and once established it proved remarkably durable.

Settlements, villages, and eventually cities have traditionally sprung up at bridgeheads or where a river could be crossed at any time of the year. Some examples in Buckinghamshire are Newport Pagnell, Buckingham, and Cookham. The most ancient, vital, and interesting architectural structures linked to use of these crossings are bridges, and people hold a deep fascination for them. There are literally thousands of bridges in Buckinghamshire, varying vastly in size, style, and materials. Many are stone, a few are wooden, and there
are numerous brick and more modern steel and concrete constructions.

Bridges in this book are more than 100 years old, mostly lie on public roads or rights-of way, are publicly accessible, and have a significant proportion of the original bridge intact. Through photographs, stories, and historical facts, this book looks at the wonderful historic bridges that make up the chronology of Buckinghamshire.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Oxbow Books
• Release date: Aug 4, 2021
• ISBN: 9781911188933

Marshall G. Hall

Marshall G. Hall is a retired UK university professor of Socio-anthropology who has held a lifelong interest in travel, architecture, linguistics, and adventure. Having written for academia for years, today Marshall writes, teaches the occasional university class as a guest lecturer, and does public speaking. In 2021, Marshall published Historic Bridges of Buckinghamshire for Windgather Press, and in 2022, Medieval Bridges of Southern England: 100 Bridges, 1000 Years was published, which was the first of a three-volume series on medieval bridges of England.

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