Skew Bridge near Pangbourne being demolished over Christmas

[whole diary]

[Marlburian]

Like I said in the title:

Pangbourne Parish Council website

I vaguely recall that when the new bridge was built the old one was left in place because some sort of pipes ran underneath it.

A couple of years ago I'd just driven over the bridge towards Pangbourne when I met a very large lorry on my side of the road inching backwards towards the village.

I surmised that the driver had belatedly realised there was a weight restriction on the bridge. Dunno where he thought he was going to turn around - I suppose he could have gone down into Beale Wildlife Park had he been aware of the layout there. And Pangbourne Station car park would have been an option. A mile down the road, a police car was coming the other way, perhaps to help the driver.

Locals will know that on at least two occasions recently lorries have damaged buildings when trying to turn up the steep hill in Streatley. My casual Googling led to a lorry drivers' forum where members spoke of the problems of delivering heavy equipment and components to the correct side of the Thames for the electrification programme.

Marlburian

[eightonedee]

There is a tragic story about this bridge.

In the early 1970s, the first pupil from Theale Grammar School to secure a place at Oxford or Cambridge (the school opened in 1963) was killed in a road accident on the bridge before he went up to university to take his place.

If I recall correctly, this was before traffic lights were installed on the bridge

[Oxonhutch]

They really could do with two bridges here - one for each direction and remove the lights altogether.

[Marlburian]

The diversion around the bridge removal is a bit torturous, though not so onerous as when the steep hill out of Streatley was closed (twice) to repair the houses damaged by errant lorries.

Marlburian

[Marlburian]

Sorry - another double post. Dunno if it's me, but sometimes nothing seems to happen when  I press "post". And sometimes I get the message "Sorry, SMF^▸ (Simple Machines Forum - The software we use on this site) was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later". And "alt+s" brings up "Show all history" Bear with me, please, I'll get used to things!

If a mod wants to have a quiet word with me ...

Marlburian

[grahame]

Sorry - another double post. Dunno if it's me, but sometimes nothing seems to happen when  I press "post". And sometimes I get the message "Sorry, SMF^▸ (Simple Machines Forum - The software we use on this site) was unable to connect to the database. This may be caused by the server being busy. Please try again later". And "alt+s" brings up "Show all history" Bear with me, please, I'll get used to things!

If a mod wants to have a quiet word with me ...

Marlburian

There is an issue on our server in the last 48 hours or so - which I am currently researching. With an intermittent problem as this one is, I have no easy setup where I can make a change and see if it works.