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Winterbrook Bridge, Nosworthy Way, A4130

The Archaeology of the Wallingford Bypass, 1986-92, by Alistair Barclay, Anne Marie Cromarty, George Lambrick, Mark Robinson -

Late Bronze Age Ritual and Habitation on a Thames Eyot at Whitecross Farm, Wallingford -
The site at Whitecross Farm, including timber structures located on the edge of the eyot, and a substantial midden and occupation deposit has been securely radiocarbon-dated to the late Bronze Age. The late Bronze Age artefact assemblages are suggestive of a high-status site, with a range of domestic and ritual activities represented.
The bank of the Grim's Ditch earthwork was found to have preserved evidence of earlier settlement, dating to the Neolithic and Bronze Age, and a sequence of cultivation, including ard marks and 'cord-rig' cultivation ridges. Pottery and radiocarbon analysis dated the earthwork to the end of the late Iron Age or the early Roman period.
A multi-period settlement, consisting of pits, a waterhole, postholes, gullies and field systems, was identified at Bradford's Brook, Cholsey.
The main periods represented are late Bronze Age and Romano-British, while a small quantity of Saxon pottery indicates limited Saxon activity. A large pit containing late Bronze Age pottery, a cattle skull, waterlogged wood and plant remains, a complete loomweight and flint flakes has been interpreted as a waterhole. A series of radiocarbon dates were obtained for deposits within this feature.

1993: Winterbrook Bridge Built downstream of Wallingford -

Winterbrook Bridge
Winterbrook Bridge

Winterbrook Bridge, Doug Myers © 2005
Winterbrook Bridge, Doug Myers © 2005

Winterbrook Ferry Site

1890:  View upstream from Winterbrook Ferry, Francis Frith -

1890:  View upstream from Winterbrook Ferry, Francis Frith
1890:  View upstream from Winterbrook Ferry, Francis Frith
This shows Chalmore Lock house and the Chalmore Lock site (removed 1883)

Chalmore Lock Site, Chalmore Hole, Old Wallingford Lock

1838:  Lock built: a summer or low water lock and weir

1859: The Thames, Mr & Mrs Hall

[ We wouldn't bother with such a simple quotation except that it contributes towards understanding what the old lock was called and where it was. ]

and about a mile further [from Crowmarsh below Wallingford], at a lock known as "Chamber Hole", we observe Newnham-Murrell[sic], with an old church on one side of the river,

1865:  Works in a bad state;  the fall was 17 to 20 inches
1865: Old Wallingford Lock, Henry Taunt -

Old Wallingford Lock, Henry Taunt, 1865
Old Wallingford Lock, Henry Taunt, 1865
© Oxfordshire County Council Photographic Archive; HT1322

1873: Taunt's Map and Guide to the Thames, showing Chalmore Lock -

WALLINGFORD LOCK is open in high water, and does not fall at any time above 18 inches. It is, I am informed, decided to remove it at an early date.

1873 Map showing Chalmore Lock
1873 Taunt's Map showing Chalmore Lock which was removed in 1883.
[ Top is South! ]

1881:  George Leslie, "Our River" -

But it is a great relief when one gets up to the queer low weir and lock at Chalmore Hole;  the weir is a mere row of rimers and paddles straight across the stream, while the lock as often as not is wide open at each end.

1883:  Old Wallingford Lock finally removed.
 
1889:  Krausse:

Long after the gates were removed it was a dangerous impediment to navigation.  The way the tolls used to be exacted for passing the ruins of this lock, long after there ceased to be any fall, and indeed after the gates had been removed, caused considerable annoyance.

1889:  Jerome K Jerome has an amusing story connected with its removal -

I remember being terribly upset once up the river (in a figurative sense, I mean). I was out with a young lady - cousin on my mother's side - and we were pulling down to Goring. It was rather late, and we were anxious to get in - at least SHE was anxious to get in. It was half-past six when we reached Benson's lock, and dusk was drawing on, and she began to get excited then. She said she must be in to supper. I said it was a thing I felt I wanted to be in at, too; and I drew out a map I had with me to see exactly how far it was. I saw it was just a mile and a half to the next lock - Wallingford - and five on from there to Cleeve.
"Oh, it's all right!" I said.
"We'll be through the next lock before seven, and then there is only one more;" and I settled down and pulled steadily away.
"You don't think we have lost our way, do you?" asked my companion.
I did not see how that was possible; though, as I suggested, we might have somehow got into the weir stream, and be making for the falls.
This idea did not comfort her in the least, and she began to cry. She said we should both be drowned, and that it was a judgment on her for coming out with me. It seemed an excessive punishment, I thought; but my cousin thought not, and hoped it would all soon be over.
Then I began to get nervous myself. I looked again at the map. There was Wallingford lock, clearly marked, a mile and a half below Benson's. It was a good, reliable map; and, besides, I recollected the lock myself. I had been through it twice. Where were we? What had happened to us?
I still went on pulling, however, and still no lock came in sight, and the river grew more and more gloomy and mysterious under the gathering shadows of night, and things seemed to be getting weird and uncanny. I thought of hobgoblins and banshees, and will-o'-the-wisps, and those wicked girls who sit up all night on rocks, and lure people into whirl- pools and things; and I wished I had been a better man, and knew more hymns; and in the middle of these reflections I heard the blessed strains of "He's got `em on," played, badly, on a concertina, and knew that we were saved.
The sweet sounds drew nearer, and soon the boat from which they were worked lay alongside us. It contained a party of provincial `Arrys and `Arriets, out for a moonlight sail. (There was not any moon, but that was not their fault.) I never saw more attractive, lovable people in all my life. I hailed them, and asked if they could tell me the way to Wallingford lock; and I explained that I had been looking for it for the last two hours.
"Wallingford lock!" they answered.
"Lor' love you, sir, that's been done away with for over a year. There ain't no Wallingford lock now, sir. You're close to Cleeve now.
Blow me tight if `ere ain't a gentleman been looking for Wallingford lock, Bill!"

I think this would be the right print to go with the story -


"A party of provincial `Arrys and `Arriets, out for a moonlight sail"
[ UNDINE: folklore, female water sprite who could acquire a soul by marrying a human being.
If, however, her lover proved unfaithful, she had to return to the water. ]

1909: The Story of the Thames, J E Vincent -

A short half mile below Wallingford Bridge we come to evidence of what used to be known as Wallingford Lock, but was properly described as Chalmore Hole Lock, probably the shortest-lived lock in all the history of the river; [ 1838 - 1883 ]
Now several times in the year immediately before 1883 I made the cruise from Oxford to Teddington under sail, being therefore the more inclined to resent a needless lock ... and this lock left an abiding impression of fatuity.

1881: George Leslie, "Our River" -

Houses on the Wallingford side commence as soon as the [now removed old Wallingford] lock is passed;  one of these, a large many-windowed house, with fine elm trees about it, has for some years been the residence of my friend Mr. Hayllar, the artist.  He has much improved the beauty of his garden, and the boat-house is very quaint, running askew from the river beneath the shade of elms, and over its arched entrance is a charming summer-house.