BY VICTOR SPINK
There has been some sort of bridge at Weybridge since the earliest times and the first reference to a bridge here being in 675AD in a document relating to Chertsey Abbey. In 1235 Henry III granted to William Pincerna, for his homage and service, two mills on the River Wey, one above the ‘bridge of Wey,’ and the other at ‘Feyreford’, at an annual rent of five silver marks. In 1571 commissioners were appointed to report on the condition of the bridge. They stated that for some years it had been so decayed as to be unsafe for passengers, and that it was now ruinous. If Queen Elizabeth should be at her house at Oatlands Palace and the waters should rise, ‘as often they do,’ it was quoted, she could not pass over the River Wey to hunt in Windsor Forest, the edge of which was marked by Crouch Oak at Addlestone. (Tradition has it that Good Queen Bess once rested under the oak’s boughs.)
It was accordingly ordered that a new bridge, a horse-bridge like the last should be built being 5 foot wide, wood being used for its construction, as stonework would be too costly. The expense was to be borne by Her Majesty the Queen, as the land on either side belonged to her. The County rebuilt the bridge in 1809. It was a bridge with 13 wooden arches and was built for horse drawn vehicles. The present iron bridge we see today replaced it in 1865 and is a 7 foot single way, controlled with traffic lights.
The Brooklands photograph of 1937 shows some crafty spectators standing up in punts, skiffs and canoes on an August Bank Holiday Monday watching all the racing cars thunder by at 100 plus mph. A British bobby is detailed to the spot to see that these free-bee gate dodgers do not climb up on to the land itself. Brooklands race track was not in the practice of hiring out shallow river craft, so where did all these sneaky folk in their six boats come from? The answer is they punted, rowed and paddled up from other places and the boathouse on the River Wey next to Weybridge bridge, after hiring their boats from there. As the River Wey runs down through Brooklands and under the race track itself, a half hour’s effort moving under the Weybridge iron bridge and up stream to Brooklands, the cheeky boaters found themselves very close to the fast action at the track side as seen in the picture. Weybridge bridge boatyard was kept busy in the summer by these ‘free-bee folk’ over the years. (Note the steward in the white coat on the top of the track stopping illicit photographers who sneak up there to get action perspective shots of the cars roaring by).
During World War Two, if there had been observers walking over the bridge at Weybridge on a fine midday on Wednesday 4th September 1940, they would have watched in horror – along with the farm workers in the field of the farm next to the Wey Navigation – the fourteen enemy bombers zooming around in the air at their maximum speed of 350 mph, at low level, easily within sight as they made a surprise attack on the Brooklands war factories.
With hands over their ears the local Battle of Britain witnesses could have watched the streaking aircraft going so quickly that it would have been difficult at a glance to see the swastikas on their tails in the sunlight and the aggressive white sharks teeth painted on the noses of the Messerschmidt Bf 110 fighter/bombers. This, together with hearing the rat-tat-tat of the machine guns strafing local workers, and bombs being dropped and exploding on the Vickers aircraft factory and air raid shelter at Brooklands by the German Luftwaffe at precisely 1.24pm. It was a dreadful destructive day, being just after lunch and made much worse by the considerable injuries and huge loss of life of the Brooklands workers.
This was a quick low level attack which lasted a long three minutes and was considered the most devastating raid on an aircraft factory in Britain at the time. For the 14 enemy German pilots and the 28 crew flying the Messerschmidt Bf 110s it was so easy, just flying up at low level along the English Channel coast cruising at 250mph, then turning sharp right at Worthing and flying north the 40 miles distance inland for six minutes or so with the white oval race track visible for miles when looking out of the pilot’s cabin and thus making Brooklands an easy target. Wednesday 4th September 1940 was a very busy day for both attackers and defenders in the south of England.
On the 4th of September every year a two minute’s silence is held at lunchtime at Brooklands to commemorate the disastrous raid and Weybridge’s worst ever day.