Littlhampton Bridge : Holiday mini-blog

 Before The Bridge

Before the bridge, there was only one quick way into the town from the west. It was by chain ferry.

It did take vehicles as you can see from the above, but it was probably hand cranked. In the early 1900s the ferry was retired and the new bridge opened.

The Duke of Norfolk, duking happily at his seat, Arundel Castle (nowhere near Norfolk), performed the ceremony watched by what appears to be the complete population of Sussex!

Multiple Bridges

It was a swing bridge.

A ferry ran here until 1908 at which point it gained an iron swing bridge. This was opened on 27 May 1908 by the Duke of Norfolk, Lord Lieutenent of Sussex.

The contract price for the bridge was £12,988, £8,415 was paid to the Ferry Trustees to purchase their rights and £1,600 was due to making up 3 miles of road on the Rustington and Climping sides of the river. £3,000 had also been spent on obtaining Parliamentary permission, an amount higher than normal due to some serious opposition to the scheme.

Traffic signals were installed on the bridge in 1955. Extensive repairs costing £5,000 were carried out in 1956 by the Cleveland Bridge and Engineering Company.

It became part of B2143 in 1922-23 and had become part of A259 by 1930. 

Latterly, the only large vehicles allowed over were buses on route 31.

It was very narrow and was  controlled by traffic lights from the 1930s. This one way working represented a significant delay at holiday times.

So it wasn't just level crossings!

The A259 road was rerouted over the new Clympwick Bridge ...

... in the early 1970s and the Swing Bridge was rebuilt as a footbridge..

Spring tides bring the expectation of commercial shipping visits which for safety reasons require the footbridge to be opened before they commit to enter the harbour or unmoor for departure. During a large shipping move, the footbridge will be retracted from typically 15 mins before high water to 15 mins after high water but this remains subject to various factors which can lead to longer openings and/or delay to subsequent tides. Our small team endeavour to post additional notice of openings here but please note that the bridge may occasionally be retracted with little or no notice for operational reasons. Apologies for any inconvenience caused.

Retracted?

It doesn't swing, it retracts.

... and it needs to!

Two thirds of the bridge slides back on to the western side of the river ...

... parking the length of the gap in this trench; all controlled by a sweet little tower.

Buses (700 and 500) use the new road bridge as they would be too wide to use the pedestrian bridge.  

fbb does write some drivel at times!

Ardgartan Aricle Dateline Saturday 15th

And so to Fort William - where the highlight (?) was a couple of dancing plastic dinosaurs!

It is such silken threads that create the rich and meaningful tapestry of a Lochs and Glens holiday! 

But first we had to get to Fort William.

Ardgartan is near Tarbet, map bottom centre. 

fbb will not try to identify the scenery settings, largely because he cannot remember the detail. But wherever it was, it was superb and splendidly sunny! Here are9 I scenes on the way over the hill to Glencoe where a stop was made at the visitor centre.

The visitor centre revealed an interesting coach, interesting because fbb had previously downloaded a snippet of information about a new vehicle bought by a company unknown to the old bloke.

You do wonder, sometimes, whether these on-line news items have any connection with reality; perhaps being a simple ruse to get you to read the news item (unimportant) amd spend money on the products advertised in the text (essential).

In case you don't know, here is a picture of a Hairy Coo.

And here is a different Hairy Coo bus, parke at the visitor centre, with vinyls added, side ...

... and rear. 

"Let's get mooving!" Groan

The company runs tours, and is based in Edinbutgh.

There was more scenery as the party descended Glen Coe making for the Gondolas at Fort William.

Readers may feel that the above picture does not look like Fort William and they would be right. Apparently "gondola" is also the illogical name for a cable car "pod". Illogical, becauise all on-line etymologies insist that a gondola is a small boat.

But it wasn't - at Fort William.

The "gondolas" ascend part way up a mountain called Anach Mor; but the site is called "Nevis Range", a name possibly designed to make tourists think they are being carried up Ben Nevis on a string, maybe even in a small boat! 

Here's the key gubbins at the base station ...

... and see the four seater cars zoom off heavenwatds.

Because Mrs fbb is a little uneasy with heights, notably dangling from a wire at one, she declined the extra delights. So loving hubby stayed on terra firma and they both enjoyed a cheese and haggis toasted sarnie - one each.

Yummy, generously filled but pricey at £7.50.

In the town, the dinosaurs c/w over amplified noise that might once have been called music, offered street entertainment to the very few people on the street.

Although Fort Willam is a popilar holiday base, the town is in sad decline. Facilities for day trippers are, well, none. Why do Lochs and Glens dump folk there? The fbbs only had 90 minutes to not enjoy the town, but the poor souls who were dumped there before the coach went on to the "gondalas" had to endure four hours.

The fbbs have been dumped twice before and it doesn't get any better.

The museum, however, is very good, and FREE; but might fade in delightfulness before the four hours was up. Nearby is a tired and gloomy Wetherspoons which might help while away some time.

But it was sunny as fbb enjoyed (?) the dancing dinosaurs, while Mrs fbb didn't buy postcards as they were too expensive. The hotel's were more agreeably priced. 

 Next Littlehampton bus station blog : Mon 17 Mar