Bridge brickwork repainted.

Further suggestions led to more amendments and a change in observation point.

This picks out the raised footpath along the bank on the left and, I believe, makes clearer the sharp drop from there to the river. It’s reinforced both alongside the river at this point and also within the bridge. The steel footpath is on the south-facing aspect of the bridge. This aspect is north-facing. The whole structure is asymmetrical. There are more historical details here https://strayfisharts.com/2026/04/18/diary-of-an-exhibition/ at the entry dated 27th April 2026.

The Old Bridge

When it was young, it was wooden with a bounce in its step and horse muck on its planks.

In middle age, it became arched and solidified into bricks and whatever passed for cement in the 1100s. Armies marched across it in support of local lords.

In later age, the now times, it carries buses, 4x4s, a motorcade of classic cars belching forbidden fumes, your Dad on his bike, the DPD chap with his smile of confidence that your parcel will be in his van. Christmases and birthdays cross this bridge. Some of us stop to lean on its rails and watch time pass below with the ducks marking its transition from north to south. At the peaks and troughs of the river’s journeys, it stops, holds its breath, and then almost imperceptibly turns back the way it came. The whole of cosmology is there at our feet in that moment if we care to lean and look.

© Suzanne Conboy-Hill 2026