A lot of water has passed under the bridge in 50 years
WE’VE scoured the Bugle collection of old photographs to bring you these images of a famous Black Country landmark some half a century ago.
The picture at the top of the page was taken on Saturday, May 25, 1968, and it shows Galton Bridge, from the vantage point of near the railway bridge over the BCN main lines.
Our second photograph, below, was taken a few years later, on Thursday, March 4, 1971, and it shows a boat heading towards Galton Bridge, with the railway bridge in the background. In this case, we think the photographer was standing on the old road bridge over the canal.
In 1824 Thomas Telford was commissioned to improved the old winding route of the Birmingham Canal, built by James Brindley in the 1770s. Telford proposed a straighter canal with a deep cutting to bypass the troublesome locks at the Smethwick summit that caused endless delays.
Telford’s cutting was one of the greatest engineering feats of its day and was the largest earthworks ever undertaken in the world up to that point, being around 12,000ft long, 150ft wide and 70ft deep.
Telford carried Roebuck Lane over his new cutting with a new cast iron bridge, its sections being cast at the Horseley Iron Works in Tipton. The bridge was completed in 1829 and at 151ft it was the longest single-span bridge of its kind in the world. However, it was not the longest bridge in the world outright, as Telford’s Menai Suspension Bridge was completed in 1826.
The cutting passed through Black Country banker and businessman Samuel Galton’s land, so it and the bridge were named in his honour.
In 1972 Galton Bridge was listed Grade II and in 1975 it was closed to traffic. It was raised to Grade I status in 1989.
The bridge remains open to pedestrians and is part of the cycle paths network in the Galton Valley Conservation Area.