Clifton Hampden Bridge 3.1

Clifton Hampden Bridge is a road bridge crossing the River Thames in Clifton Hampden, Oxfordshire, England, situated on the reach below Clifton Lock. Originally it joined Oxfordshire on the north bank with Berkshire on the south but in 1974 the area on the south bank was transferred from Berkshire to Oxfordshire. It is a Grade II* listed building.Clifton Hampden Bridge was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott and opened in 1867. The bridge replaced a ferry service which had operated on the site since at least the early 14th century. From its opening a toll was payable but this ceased in 1946 when the County Councils of Berkshire and Oxfordshire joined to buy the bridge from its private owners.BackgroundThe reach at Clifton Hampden was rocky and shallow, with water levels often dropping to barely 2ft so it was usually fordable by cattle and horses. The earliest record of a ferry is a mention of John Broun being ferryman in the early 14th century. The archives of Exeter College, Oxford show that Clifton Ferry was given to the college in 1493 by a Watlington draper called Roger Roper; the college owned the ferry right up until 1861 when it was bought out in preparation for the building of the bridge. In 1607 a ferry at Clifton is mentioned as the downstream limit of improvement works undertaken by the 1605 Oxford-Burcot Commission. In Thomas Baskerville's travel journal of 1692 he notes "At Clifton fferry is a great boat to carry horse and man" whilst an 1829 tour notes "an ancient ferry" with a "boat passing continually to and fro".