Cookham Bridge - 1840 Bridge

1840 Bridge

On 25 May 1839 a Mr Freebody was contracted to construct the bridge for £3,140 (equivalent to £220,145) with George Treacher, the designer, as Clerk of the Works. Freebody was also contracted for a further £225 (£15,775) to build a toll house and gates on the Buckinghamshire bank. Work started on the construction of the bridge in the Summer of 1839, and was finished by the end of the year, over-budget at a total cost of £4224. The bridge was wooden and had 13 spans, nine of 24 ft (7.3 m) and four of 18 ft (5.5 m). Cookham Bridge opened on 1 Jan 1840 and was let to a Mr Bolton at an annual rent of £350 although by 1844 it was only producing £330pa in tolls.

Due to its wooden construction the bridge required a lot of maintenance and in 1859 George Treacher reported to the Cookham Bridge Company that several of the piles were "very much decayed and not unlikely to give way". In Treacher's opinion the bridge was unlikely to survive the winter and so a Mr Cook of Wycombe was engaged to make emergency repairs at a cost of £96 12s 2d (£7,314). The repairs did little to stem the decay and only five years later in 1864 the new surveyor, a Mr Carter, described the bridge as "not dangerous but not safe" and "may subside if a heavy vehicle passes over it". By 1866 the situation had deteriorated such that the lessee asked for a reduction in rent as the toll income had fallen off due to people being too afraid to use the bridge.