
No, not the title of a forthcoming blockbuster movie sequel but a little investigative work following on from this posting in which we looked at Middlewich's old Town Bridge which was replaced by the present one in 1931. The tinted postcard looked to some of us as if the River Croco had almost been airbrushed out of existence and there was some suspicious-looking greenery near the Croco bridge portal which looked a bit artificial..The general concensus of opinion was that the Croco Bridge didn't really look much like a real bridge, but more like a mere culvert designed to accomodate a drainage ditch. Which, of course, is really what the Croco became when the canal was built and the river channelled to run alongside it. I thought that the best thing we could do was to take a look at the bridge as it exists today, and this is what it looked like on the morning of 16th August 2011.
The first thing to notice is that, as Allan Earl reported
*' ...The existing brick arch, over the River Croco, was strengthened by a reinforced concrete saddle' - Middlewich 1900-1950 by Allan Earl (Cheshire Country Publishing 1994)
and here we can see that concrete saddle at the top of the picture and running slightly at an angle to what must be the remains of the old bridge. This concrete section looks to have just been unceremoniously dumped on top of the bridge and to be held in place by its own weight.
The current parapet above this is a fairly recent addition of nondescript white-ish brick, not really in keeping with the rest of the Town Bridge structure.

UPDATE: I was in the area for an MRLC meeting on August 30th and have to report that, sadly, the blue and white RIVER CROCO signs which adorned this most humble of all river bridges have now disappeared -ed.
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