12 miles south of Gainsborough, Dunham Toll Bridge charges just 40p for cars and 60p for motorhomes to cross the river Trent, making it one of the cheapest toll roads in England.
Nearly every Gainsborough resident will have crossed it at some point this year and many motorists in Lincolnshire and from further afield use Dunham Bridge frequently. It is the southernmost of only four ways vehicles can cross the River Trent from Lincolnshire. The others being Gainsborough’s Trent Bridge, the M180 Trent bridge and Keadby’s Road/Rail bridge near the Humber.
Stephen Betteridge, a director at the Dunham Bridge Company, tells us that in the 19th century the only way to cross the River Trent locally before Dunham Bridge, was via the bridges at Gainsborough and Newark. However, there were also a number of small ferries that transported people across the river between villages.
In the late 1820s some Lincoln-based businessmen decided that was quite a gap so another bridge would be a good idea. An Act of Parliament was passed in 1830 to allow bridge construction to proceed. Local Lincolnshire businessmen were quoted £14,000 to build the bridge - equivalent to more than £1.5million today. Shareholders were then needed in order to fund the project, costing holders £50 each, a substantial amount of money at the time. After hosting a competition, one design was chosen from a shortlist of three and work began to build the bridge.
The original four-span, cast-iron construction was designed by the civil engineer, George Leather (1786–1870). Reportedly, the first person to cross the bridge was Eliza Woolas of Laneham, who used a sixteen-inch batten to span the remaining gap on a Sunday - presumably when no workmen were present!
Dunham Bridge was opened in April 1832 but it did not become the investment that the shareholders signed up to initially. From the moment it opened there were tolls, even if you were crossing it on foot.
You would have thought that the shareholders could sit back and watch the money come in but there was only enough 'traffic' to cover running expenses. 50 years passed before the loan that had been taken out to build Dunham Bridge was eventually paid back in 1884. By this point shares which had been worth £50 had dropped in value to just £1 and 50 shillings in 1860. The first dividend was only paid to shareholders in 1886!
In 1918, the Dunham Bridge Company started hiring its own staff to collect toll payments as it does today. Only once we entered the 'motor age' did Dunham Bridge started to make money.
In 1975 consulting engineers filed a report that said that the bridge was not in very good order and was 'worryingly weak'. This eventually led to the bridge structure being replaced and reopened in 1978. It was rebuilt on its original piers to "trunk-road" standards Other than an overhaul of the toll plaza in 1994, that was the last time major works were carried out on the bridge.
When the bridge first opened in 1832, 70% of shareholders were from Lincolnshire, today that figure stands at just 25%. Money drivers pay to cross Dunham Bridge is now split four ways:
· It pays for the people collect the tolls.
· Ongoing maintenance is financed.
· Money is also being put aside for the eventual replacement of the bridge.
· Current day shareholders also benefit from toll payments
Unlike some tolls, Dunham Bridge is free to cross on Christmas Day and Boxing Day, Mr Betteridge explained why this is the case. "Let's face it, toll bridges and roads are not the most popular businesses," he said. "As a goodwill gesture, we have decided to firstly allow our staff to spend Christmas with their loved ones while also allowing those in Lincolnshire and further afield to get to their families easier."
This brief history of Dunham Toll Bridge was sourced from WIKIPEDIA, with extracts from a Lincolnshire Live article by Jack Flintham.
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Photo credit Dunham Bridge Today to Richard Croft, CCBY-SA2.0 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=3983317
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