18th century Sonning Bridge, Berkshire, England
Sonning Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames at Sonning, Berkshire. It is a brick arch bridge completed in 1775, to replace an earlier wooden bridge. The bridge has been the subject of many paintings and prints by artists and is a Grade II listed building.
A stone marker at the centre of the bridge is marked "B | O" (for the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire on each side of the river) with the vertical line indicating the exact boundary down the middle of the river. This is an ancient border which used to be between Wessex and Mercia.
The village of Sonning at the Berkshire end of the bridge, is one of the most charming on the Thames, despite being just a few miles from the ever expanding town of Reading. It was described by Jerome K. Jerome in his book Three Men in a Boat as "the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river".
However, the village is plagued with queues of traffic, especially at morning and evening rush hours as the bridge is quite long and only one lane wide, and traffic lights control the intermittent flow of vehicles. It is the only bridge across the river between Reading and Henley on Thames and plans for another have been debated for many years.
18th century Sonning Bridge, Berkshire, England
Sonning Bridge is a road bridge across the River Thames at Sonning, Berkshire. It is a brick arch bridge completed in 1775, to replace an earlier wooden bridge. The bridge has been the subject of many paintings and prints by artists and is a Grade II listed building.
A stone marker at the centre of the bridge is marked "B | O" (for the counties of Berkshire and Oxfordshire on each side of the river) with the vertical line indicating the exact boundary down the middle of the river. This is an ancient border which used to be between Wessex and Mercia.
The village of Sonning at the Berkshire end of the bridge, is one of the most charming on the Thames, despite being just a few miles from the ever expanding town of Reading. It was described by Jerome K. Jerome in his book Three Men in a Boat as "the most fairy-like little nook on the whole river".
However, the village is plagued with queues of traffic, especially at morning and evening rush hours as the bridge is quite long and only one lane wide, and traffic lights control the intermittent flow of vehicles. It is the only bridge across the river between Reading and Henley on Thames and plans for another have been debated for many years.