Bridge, Bridge Terrace, Sudbury

Image: © Robin Webster Taken: 31 Oct 2015

The track under the bridge was for road access to a small chalk pit with limekilns, mapped as old in 1885. The way over the bridge is from a high level footpath parallel with the track on the left to the six houses of Bridge Terrace, also at high level on the right, out of sight. It seems likely this was the only access to the front of the houses once, but now there is road access, via this track, at low level and a foot route up to the houses. There is also access from Upper East Street to the rear. In 2014 the chalk pit site, latterly part of the garden of a house above on Queens Close, was being redeveloped for further housing. The access was intended to be through the bridge, and work was done on lowering the track under the bridge. During this the bridge and utilities were damaged, hence the patched up cracks. The planning authority pronounced there was no permission for this work, and work was stopped. The access to the development was changed to be from Queens Close, so the passage under the bridge is blocked. For some reason the footway over the bridge is also now blocked with a short length of high wooden fence set into the hedge along the footpath. The bridge is claimed to be 150 years old. It certainly appears on the 1885 map, with a benchmark on it.

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