Just a very short walk away from the Coronation Stone in Kingston is a remarkable old bridge, the Clattern Bridge which crosses over the Hoggsmill Rover.
The current bridge was built in 1175AD and replaced a much older Anglo-Saxon bridge which was then known as the Clatrung Bridge. The bridge has had several similarly unusual names over the years including the Clateryngbrugge but they are all thought to have derived from the clattering noises of passing horses’s hooves as they went over the bridge.
At one time Kingston was well out of London though is now a rather affluent area within it but nevertheless it is incredible that the old bridge is still in active use today to modern vehicular road traffic though it was widened in the mid 18th and 19th centuries.
Fascinatingly, right up to the 18th century, Clattern bridge was used as a site for the ducking of scolds with large crowds of locals gathering to watch the punishment for local miscreants. The bridge also featured in the traditional game of football held in the centre of Kingston each year on Shrove Tuesday. It was the goal for one of the teams, while the nearby Kingston Bridge was the other goal.
In the late 18th century, the authorities tried to suppress the game on account of its violence and disruption of the town’s trade. The Riot Act was read in 1798 and the cavalry at Hampton Court was sent for but did not respond as they were playing football too. It was almost another century before the annual match was moved to a nearby field.
More recently in 2012, a zoological survey found that eels were having difficulty migrating upstream under the bridge, due to the fast flow of water across the smooth surface under the bridge. Tiles were fixed to the river bed with protrusions so that the eels could wriggle up them to pass the bridge and eels are now found upstream on the Hogsmill.
If that old traditional game of football sounds a bit rough, then you don’t want to know what was happening 40 miles east in that gentlemanly game of cricket. When Cricket FairPlay and sportsmanship were hit for SIX at Tilbury Fortress
Stephen Liddell 