Our Newhaven | Port and Harbour | DENTON ISLAND, OLD RIVER AND BRIDGES | NEWHAVEN OLD SWING BRIDGE

Log in

User name: Password:

NEWHAVEN OLD SWING BRIDGE

View looking upriver

By Richard Beckett

This view was taken as a record of when the old bridge was still in the ownership of British Rail. The advert for "Bannisters Depositories" stands out clearly on the roof at the left, and upstream on the right can be seen the mass of cranes which used to work on North Quay. At the middle of the bridge can be seen the old gas lamp which showed Red to warn ships at night that the bridge was closed to river traffic. This gas lamp is now to be seen in the Newhaven Local Musuem. When the bridge was replaced with the modern one, I understand that it was intended to place the large ornate cast iron units as decorative articles within the pedestrian precinct. However when they were temporarily stored down by the Harbour Station, they were "spirited away" by some scrap iron entepreneurs and disappeared in the melting pot.

Old Swing Bridge

Richard

This page was added by Richard Beckett on 19/06/2008.

Comments about this page

Just upriver of the old bridge and to the right was a small slipway where a fishmonger used to sell fish from his barrow. Can anyone else remember this, it would have been mid to late 60's?

By Rob Patten
On 26/06/2008

Rob, I have a feeling the fishmonger may well have been Rocky Marchant. Rocky was the deckhand for Big Ted (not "Glamour") Gillam, on the Alert. The only other fishmonger I know of, who sold from a barrow, was Mr. Capps. "Cappo" and he was to be found on Bridge Street, by Featherstones Cafe. However, I think he was more 1950s.

By William Stovell
On 14/12/2008