FIRST AT THE SCENE TELLS OF CLEDDAU COLLAPSE
ON a blazing hot June day in 1970 Pembroke Ferry’s villagers were going about their business as the now iconic Cleddau bridge was constructed over them. But at 2.16pm disaster struck. As part of the structure was lowered into place there was a loud groan, a deafening crash and a cloud of red dust.
The enormous concrete and metal construct smashed to the ground, killing four men, injuring another five and missing homes by yards.
PC Phil Lloyd was the first officer on the scene.
The dad of two had just arrived for duty at Pembroke Dock police station.
At 2.20pm his mother-in-law called. She lived 30 metres below the bridge.
“The fella on the switchboard said ‘your mother-in-law is on the phone’,” Phil, 71, said.
“She said, ‘ The bridge has come down’ and I said, ‘Don’t be so dull.’”
Phil’s son Steve said the gas man had been at the house fixing the boiler when she heard an enormous bang.
There was debris everywhere. She thought the tradesman had blown up the house.
“She said the bridge had come down and there was a bloke lying dead in the garden,” Phil said.
The policeman, who now works as an undertaker and lives in the shadow of the rebuilt bridge, “didn’t know what to think”.
He raced to the scene on the southern shore of the River Cleddau.
“The road down from the village is now twice the width it was at that time,” Phil said.
“You could not get two cars to pass then because it was so narrow, so you can imagine the confusion and the pandemonium with the ambulances and the fire engines.
“We came down straight away and looked down to the bottom and there was the bridge. I was aghast.”
It was almost lying across the road instead of towering over it.
Phil’s mother-in-law about the casualties.
“There were two dead at the scene and two died on the way to the hospital,” he said.
They were William Baxendale, George Hamilton, Evan Phillips and James Thompson.
“It was a case of keeping the public back to get the ambulances out,” Phil said.
“One person who was killed was underneath the bridge. When he fell off it came down on top of him.
“We didn’t get him out until the Friday, what was left of him.”
The bridge was – and is – a box girder design.
That means it was built in sections that were trundled along the partially completed bridge and simply lowered onto the front of the construc- was right tion. The accident was caused by inadequate supports being used when the box girder section was being lowered into place.
It was also said there were communication and organisational failures on the building site.
“My mother-in-law was in a state of shock and was saying she did not want to live there any more, and she had been born and bred in the village,” Phil said.
“The residents then formed an association and there were calls for the bridge to be removed, but that was not going to happen.
“Eventually everything died down and it was rebuilt.”
Phil had more family living within metres of the broken bridge.
“My mother-in-law’s sister lived on the other side of the bridge,” he said.
“Her coal shed and toilet were smashed into smithereens.
“Within a year or so it was discovered there was a crack from the top to the bottom of the house and the wall that stretched to the beach had to be pulled down.”
She was due to be compensated but died before it came through.
The families of the dead did not receive much either.
“The one I was talking about, who was under the bridge, his widow was paid out £24,000,” Phil said.
“That was £12,000 for her and £12,000 for her son, who was a baby.
“It was the ’70s so it was a fair amount – but if it happened today the payouts would have been in the millions.”
The day after it fell Phil was back on duty.
“I had to keep guard because you had all the ghouls who wanted to come and have a look,” he said.
“It was a bit different to going to a chimney fire or going to an accident.”
Phil’s son Steve now lives where the bridge landed.
That had been an empty spot at the time of the collapse.
“I’ve dug several bits out of the garden,” he said.
“They’ve put a plaque up dedicated to their memory of the four boys who lost their lives when it fell.”
Wilfred Johns is a family friend of the Lloyds.
“After the collapse of the bridge the inquiry dragged on for years and it cost a fortune to redesign the bridge,” he said.
“At the time it was a Labour government under Harold Wilson and the price of steel went up by 25% or something.”
Wilfred said the bridge was commissioned by Pembrokeshire County Council.
“The collapse was over in seconds,” he said. “I believe it was a hot June day and the next thing it was down.
“There were no mobile phones then but I heard the bridge had collapsed and the road to Pembroke Ferry and the site was all closed off.”
Margaret Murton’s parents were living in the area, although she was studying in London at the time.