Sutton Bridge
Sutton Bridge is a town and civil parish in the South Holland district of Lincolnshire, England. It is situated on the A17 road, north from Wisbech and west from King's Lynn. The village includes a commercial dock on the west bank of the River Nene over which spans a swing bridge, and the parish, two 19th-century lighthouses to the north from the village on the Nene.
Geography
The town lies very close to the county borders of both Norfolk and Cambridgeshire in the extreme south east of Lincolnshire. The parish boundary to the east, next to the Wash, meets Terrington St Clement and Norfolk. A mile north of the A17, it meets Walpole Cross Keys. At King John Bank it crosses the A17, meeting Walpole. At the junction of the North Level Main Drain with the River Nene, it follows the Nene northwards, meeting Tydd St Mary. At South Holland Bridge it follows South Holland Main Drain westwards to South Holland Lodge, where it meets Little Sutton, and follows Hospital Drove northwards, crossing the A17 where the pylons cross the bypass. It crosses the former A17 next to the large Premier Foods factory. At Maze Farm it briefly meets Long Sutton then meets Lutton. It follows the Lutton Leam eastwards through Old Leam Farm.Sutton Bridge and the surrounding area has recently seen an influx of new residents, mostly from the southern part of the United Kingdom. This has resulted in a healthy housing construction and improvement plan. In 1999, Sutton Bridge Power Station, a 790 MW gas-fired power station that feeds electricity into the UK's National Grid was opened, it is situated on Centenary Way, close to the River Nene.
In 2024, a 57.3-mile stretch of the King Charles III England Coast Path opened from Sutton Bridge to Skegness. An existing stretch of the England Coast Path reaches Hunstanton.
History
The early 19th-century village consisted of a few farmhouses and cottages straggled along the track which passed for a main road. The parish church is dedicated to St Matthew, and is the only flint church in Lincolnshire.Marshes
Stretching to the east and north was a vast, fast flowing expanse of marshes known as Cross Keys Wash, through which the River Nene wound its way to the sea. The whole area is composed of sand and silt, shifting regularly as the water cut new channels. The track across the marshes between Lincolnshire and Norfolk was passable at low water and needed a guide for a safe passage. Livestock, travellers, wagons and coaches were lost into the quicksand of the marshes.Since reclamation began in the 16th century of the estuary between Long Sutton and Sutton Bridge, The Wash House marked the start of the safe track and it was possible to hire guides to help the general travellers and also the drovers with their herds of cattle, flocks of sheep or geese safely over the marsh.
King John losing the Crown Jewels
It was recorded by contemporary chroniclers that on 12 October 1216 King John's crown jewels and other valuable crown possessions were lost in marshland when the horse-drawn baggage train of his army, in passing from Bishop's Lynn en route to Sleaford, attempted to cross the causeway and ford across the mouth of the Wellstream without a guide. John, on departing from Bishop's Lynn, had apparently chosen the safer route via Wisbech in the Isle of Ely. The baggage train route was usable only at low tide. The horse-drawn wagons moved too slowly for the incoming tide or flood tide, and most were lost with only a few men surviving. The king died a week later of dysentery, and was succeeded to the throne by his 9-year-old son, Henry III.The location of the incident is usually supposed to be somewhere near the site of Sutton Bridge, on the River Nene. The name of the river changed as a result of the redirection of the Great Ouse during the 17th century, and Bishop's Lynn became King's Lynn as a result of Henry VIII's rearrangement of the English Church.
During the early part of the 20th century, several privately sponsored archaeological attempts were made to discover the exact location of King John's long-lost treasure, on of reclaimed land between Sutton Bridge and Wisbech. Modern scientific equipment, such as the magnetic variometer method were implemented, from the headquarters of Fen Research Ltd., located at Dovecote Farm in Walpole St. Peter, which had been purposely formed to search for King John's treasure. The research company was financially sponsored by the wealthy American James R. H. Boone of Baltimore, and included on the board Sir Francis Hill and Sir R. E. Mortimer Wheeler, keeper of the London Museum.
In 2021 it was reported in the local newspaper that another treasure hunter had claimed to have found the location of the treasure.
Railway
The first railway reached the village in 1862 with Sutton Bridge railway station. The actual operation of the railways caused problems when ships were using the river. With no radio communication between the two, news of the approaching ship depended on visual warning.The Great War
A war memorial to those who gave their lives for their country 1914-1918 was erected in the churchyard of St Matthew's church. The war memorials online website states that the names of 48 men are inscribed on the memorial and also those from the Second World War.Port Sutton Bridge
The authorised the construction of the dock and other necessary works, including connecting the dock to the existing railway. The wet dock was to be some by with a lock from the river of. The length of the quayside was to be with a long timber jetty on the east side. On the west side was to be a coal jetty, equipped with a hydraulic lift to raise coal trucks to tip their loads into ships waiting beneath.The dock gates weighed 35 tons each and 1.5 million bricks were used in constructing the dock entrance. An area of was taken up by the dock itself and of soil were excavated. The first sod was cut on 1 January 1878 and 100 men, 50 horses and carts, 1 steam dredger and several barges were involved in the work.
The work was completed and the first ship to enter the dock did so on 14 May 1881, carrying 1200 tons of cargo destined for Messrs English of Wisbech. The excitement was spoilt somewhat as the dock entrance had not been dredged to a sufficient depth and the ship had to unload some of her cargo before entering the dock. However, towed by the tugs, Pendennis and the Isle of Ely, she floated into the dock. In the following week, four other ships used the dock.
The official opening was planned for 29 June with great public festivities, however on 9 June part of the ground at the south west corner of the lock sank, leaving the concrete facing unsupported. At the same time, a strip of earth at the back of the lock on the north side sank, carrying with it, two steam traction engines which had been used for pumping. They were buried deep in the silt. Frantic efforts were made to repair the damage. Trainloads of sand, silt, rubble, clay and limestone were poured into the gaps to no avail. On the following Tuesday of concrete facing on the opposite, west side of the dock itself were dislodged because the footings had been scoured away. On Wednesday, many more yards of the concrete cracked and subsided. All three ships which had been in the dock had got away safely with some difficulty. The great weight of concrete laid on shifting silt, together with inadequate timber piling would appear to have led to the collapse. Efforts to save the dock were soon seen to be futile and the plan was abandoned. The railway company lost a fortune and Sutton Bridge's growth as a port was halted for over 100 years.
Sutton Bridge Golf Club, established in 1914, is a nine-hole golf course in and around the abandoned dock basin. The concrete walls of the dock, some 15 feet high, form part of the course.
The modern Port Sutton Bridge opened in 1987. It is a 62-acre dry cargo port and warehouse complex. The port provides a 350 metre long wharf accommodating between four and five vessels, with a maximum vessel length of 120 metres and 17 metre beam. Vessels up to 5,000 DWT, with a draught of 6 metres can be accommodated at spring tide.
Swing bridge
The swing bridge which spans the River Nene is a notable feature of the town and the current version, known as Cross Keys Bridge, was built in 1897 at a cost of £80,000 and is the third bridge to cross the river. The bridge was originally dual purpose, serving both road and rail traffic until 1959 when the railway closed.The first bridge, opened in 1831, was designed by John Rennie the Younger and Thomas Telford as part of the Wash Embankment works. It was of a timber and cast iron construction and opened up rather like London's famous Tower Bridge. However it was eventually found to be awkwardly sited and in 1850, its replacement designed by Robert Stephenson was opened.
The position of the second bridge was approximately halfway between the original and the present day bridge. It was a swing bridge and was used only for road traffic until 1864 when the Midland Railway acquired powers to also use it for rail traffic. When the current bridge was constructed it was hoped that the 1850 bridge could be left in position for rail use but the river authorities decided that two bridges so close together constituted a hazard for shipping, and it was removed.
Lighthouses
Twin lighthouses were built on the banks of the mouth of the River Nene in 1831, to commemorate the opening of the Nene outfall cut. In 1861, however, it was officially reported that 'they have never been used, nor are they considered at all necessary, as the system of lighting adopted in this port is found to answer all purposes required'.Contrary to belief these were lit and acted as lighthouses although they were not lit throughout the night, there being no rocks to protect ships from. The River Nene has however always been an important navigation for shipping and if a high tide occurred after dark, they were lit for approximately one and a half hours before and after high tide to guide ships through the sand banks and into the river. The towers are circular but the top lantern sections are hexagonal. Both have a circular window facing the channel entry. Each has in addition a half moon window to the north on the west bank lighthouse and to the south on the east bank lighthouse. A ship picking up either side light is not in the channel. The side lights would however be used by skilled pilots to triangulate their way through the twisting sand banks by picking them up and losing them.
The East Bank Lighthouse is known as the Sir Peter Scott Lighthouse: before the Second World War it was inhabited by the naturalist and artist Sir Peter Scott who bought a large area of the Ouse Washes and established a nature reserve of what is now the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust. It also inspired the setting for Paul Gallico's novella The Snow Goose: A Story of Dunkirk.