Looking through back numbers of the Romsey Advertiser, I was somewhat startled to read a piece dated November 13, 1914, that started “People going backwards and forwards on the Greatbridge Road...” I had not thought of driving backwards along the road; I think meanings have changed in the last century.
The article continues by warning drivers of the dangerous nature of the road because “Owing to the marshy state of the ground in that district there is usually a heavy fog, and it is quite possible to get off the road”. It is likely that the road had not been made firm by being covered with tarmac, but was made up with compacted gravel. The town centre had only received tarmac about three years before.
The Advertiser was reporting an accident in which a horse had been driven off the road and both it and the trap that it was pulling were thrown “violently into a ditch”. Help arrived, but getting the horse out of the ditch proved difficult because the bank had been newly piled and the horse was somewhat shaken. Its harness was removed and finally it was coaxed back onto the highway, then the trap was recovered. Fortunately neither horse nor driver suffered more than a fright.
The bridge at Greatbridge had been made safer when the wooden construction was replaced in 1911 with bricks and metal. Greatbridge had been a problem for many centuries because the boundary between Romsey Infra and Romsey Extra ran along the river through the middle of the bridge, and it was subject to divided ownership and agreement about repairs was therefore difficult.
One owner was Romsey Corporation who could raise a rate for their share, but the other half lay with private, albeit wealthy, owners. Eventually the bridge was adopted by the County Council who thereafter were liable for its upkeep.
The Corporation had raised money for repairs in 1656 and again in 1688, after which the bridge seems to have been left for ninety years by which time part of it had fallen down, so money had again to be raised for repairs, the town’s share coming to nearly £70.
What with the stream near of Old Salisbury Lane and ditches on the other side of the road, it is not surprising that accidents happened along Greatbridge Road, although the problems now are caused more often by oversize lorries wedging under the railway bridge, rather than vehicles falling into ditches.
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