Drownings on the River Thames

Tuesday, 05 April 2011 10:44

Fortunately not recently ...

We are moored above Swinford Toll Bridge, a beautiful mooring with a lovely outlook.

Pan across the meadows to Beacon Hill

Once the River Thames was easily crossed by a ford near here - causing the first inhabitants to settle in the area and the eventual development of the nearby market town of Eynsham.

The drownings I am referring to happened many years ago, we nearly lost a famous person who has left a great legacy ....

Sometimes the crossing at Swinford was very hazardous - in 1636 some Welsh sheriffs drowned bringing money for Charles I - they lost £800, 3 or four people and 8 escaped by swimming.

There was a ferry and a causeway when John Wesley, abolitionist, teacher and founder of the Methodist Church, crossed the river in 1764.

"Between twelve and one we crossed Eynsham Ferry.  The water was like a sea on both sides.  I asked the ferryman,
“Can we ride the Causeway?”  He said,
“Yes, sir;  if you keep in the middle. ”
But this was the difficulty, as the whole causeway was covered with water to a considerable depth;  and this in many parts ran over the causeway with the swiftness and violence of a sluice.  Once my mare lost both her fore feet, but she gave a spring, and recovered the causeway;  otherwise we must have taken a swim, for the water on either side was ten or twelve feet deep.  However, after one or two plunges more, we got through, and came safe to Witney."

Swinford Toll Bridge from our mooring

Possibly the near miss for John Wesley and a near accident to King George III at the crossing also, prompted the building of Swinford Toll Bridge by the Earl of Abingdon in 1769. He was given an incentive as the King granted that the tolls should be tax free for ever!

The bridge cost £5,000 to build, was sold in 1985 for £275,000 and again in 2009 for £1.65 million. The tolls are still collected (tax free revenue of about £190,000) and I watched as traffic queued to pay to come onto the bridge at the north west end. All this from some drownings and the need for pigs to cross the river safely!

Swinford Bridge in 1784 (Samuel Ireland, from "Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide"

Eynsham is a short bus ride or 3/4 mile walk: it is worth a visit. I took the bus (S1) from the SE side of the bridge to explore and get some shopping, but more of that later!