Bridges - 37, 38 Claycart and Eelmoor Bridges PREVIOUS       NEXT

Claycart Bridge, like its sister, Eelmoor Bridge further upstream, is an Army-owned bridge designed by Captain Hopkins during the First World War.     It replaced an earlier military drawbridge, as shown in this old hand-coloured postcard view. This also indicates the countryside was more open than today.

The present-day bridge carries a minor road across the canal, with a footwalk on the upside (left of picture), and a 11,000 volt high-tension electricity cable on the other side.   Eelmoor Bridge   Just over ½ mile upstream is the similarly constructed Eelmoor Bridge, also Army-owned, situated near the end of the main runway of Farnborough Airfield.     Underneath the bridge girders on the non-towpath side are the remains of the original brick-arch bridge.     An early postcard view shows the original brick-arch Eelmoor Bridge.

A FLASH When the canal was dug in the eighteenth century, hollows or undulations in the nearby land became filled with water. Known locally as 'flashes' they act as mini-reservoirs for the canal as well as some being nature reserves. The main flashes are - Angler's Flash Great Bottom Flash Rushmoor Flash Claycart Flash Eelmoor Flash

Just upstream from the bridge is Eelmoor Flash, a nature reserve, as are most of the other flashes on the canal. The adjacent land, looking rather bare in June 2001, was cleared by the Army earlier in the year.     Farnborough Air Show     Every two years the world-famous Farnborough Air Show is held, and 2002 was one of those years.     As has now become the custom, in July 2002, in time for the Show later in the month, a second, temporary bridge was erected immediately adjacent to the existing Army-owned bridge.  This is a modern Bailey Bridge.     So for a short time the view here was uniquely different.

After its extensive "haircut" in 2001, the vegetation near the Flash is beginning to recover.     And the banksides below the bridge are mellowing once more.     But it will be some time before the tree stumps along this stretch of the canal look less bleak.     However, Eelmoor Flash itself is now looking less desolate.     In just under one mile we come to the Norris Bridges.   NEXT - Norris Bridges BACK

Last updated August 2004