A new bridge

Avon Water at Efford may seem an insignificant stream today, but it was a barrier to traffic in the eighteenth century.

This notice appeared in the Salisbury and Winchester Journal on Monday 29th February 1768:

Whereas a Timber Bridge, for Carriages, is intended to be erected over Efford Water, in the Parish of Milford, near Lymington, Hants. Any Person desirous of undertaking the same, may deliver in his Proposals on, or before, the 10th March next, to Mr. How, at Lymington aforesaid, who will treat about building the said Bridge.
Lymington, Feb. 16, 1768.

The bridge is scarcely to be compared with the masterpieces of Thomas Telford and others in the decades which followed, but is a handy reminder of the barriers to communication that our forefathers had to face.

Records

If you would like to research Milford’s history, take a look in our archive.

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