Zephon Common Swing Bridge

www.hants.gov.uk/thingstodo/countryparks/basingstokecanal... :

 

One of only two swing bridges on the canal. Upgraded in 1992/93 the bridge is counter-balanced and pivots on a circular plate supported by 24 huge ball bearings. It carries a bridleway allowing access to Zebon Copse Nature Reserve.

 

and

 

www.movablebridges.org.uk/BridgePage.asp?BridgeNumber=106

 

This is at least the fourth bridge at this location. It replaces a 1988 lift bridge, which replaced a 1958 hydraulic bridge that took 25 minutes to cycle thorugh its operation.

 

There had been a swing bridge on the site before that.

 

Ted Sedman reports that the bridge is very stiff and hard to operate, and quotes its history from P.A.L. Vine's book ""London's Lost Route to Basingstoke" (1994 edition),

 

"....the swing-bridge at Zephon Common, Crookham, c. 1910. The wooden bridge was destroyed by a Canadian tank during the invasion scare in 1940, rebuilt in steel by Hampshire County Council in 1951, vandalized in 1987, and rebuilt and reopened in 1992."

 

The present bridge is modelled very closely on Rennie's original design, which he developed first for the Kennet and Avon canal.

Done