Henley Bridge

This List entry was subject to a Minor Enhancement on 28/06/2017

SU 78 SE, 1/6

REMENHAM, HART STREET, Henley Bridge

G.V.

I

History

The C12 bridge was probably built by Henry II in the 1170s; in 1179 it was recorded that he ‘had bought land in Henley for making buildings’ (K A Rodwell (ed), Historic Towns in Oxfordshire, 1974, p125). The current road bridge was designed by William Hayward in 1781, who died in 1782 before work started. The keystones of Thamesis and Isis were carved by Anne Seymour Damer (1748-1828). Damer separated from her husband in the mid-1770s and went on to have a successful career as a sculptor. In the 1780s and 90s it became the subject of gossip in private diaries, letters and in print, that she had affairs with other women. From 1789 she had an intense and passionate friendship with Mary Berry, which continued for many years. Anne Damer was the cousin of Horace Walpole, and on his death inherited his Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham.

Details

Road bridge of 1786, designed by William Hayward, incorporating the easternmost span of the C12 bridge, with carved keystones by the sculptor Anne Seymour Damer.

Description: an ashlar stone five-span bridge. Each pier has a low projecting, domed buttress with rusticated treatment. The elliptical arches to each span have prominent keystones carved with the heads of Thamesis (facing downstream) and Isis (facing upstream). Above the arches is a dentil cornice beneath a stone balustrade, with rounded carved balusters. At both ends of the bridge, the balustrade bears metal lamp posts on each side with fluted plinths adorned with cherubs heads and four-sided lamps. Attached to each wing wall at both ends of the bridge are metal plaques instructing drivers of ‘engines’ crossing the bridge.

The south retaining wall of the east abutment is built in part on the intact easternmost span of the original C12 bridge. This has a segmental vault of shuttered flint rubble masonry with Barnack stone dressings. The arch on the south is of two square orders; that on the north is probably similar but is partially obscured by a C18 blocking wall.

Listing NGR: SU7637582642