When American Marshall Hall came to England for a years work placement, he didn't expect to still be here 33 years later, and creating a book about Buck's bridges!
But he has released a publication called 'The historic Bridges of Buckinghamshire', full of facts and photographs of the 67 bridges we have in the county.
Marshal explained to Bucks Radio why he created this book:
"Bridges generally have always held a fasciation for me. I’m not certain why, but feel it has something to do with their engineering accomplishments, who built them, the role they play in peoples lives, and the stories surrounding them-either historic or folklore.
Buckinghamshire has a wealth of historic and interesting bridges, and not just the obvious ones across the Thames like Marlow, Cookham, and Maidenhead. We have two medieval bridges in Thornborough and Turvey for example. There are 67 bridges included and I wanted to pull their histories and stories into volume of histories and photographs to raise awareness and appreciation."
He told us how he tried to make his book suitable for everyone:
"While there is a certain academic element to the book, I tried my best to also include stories and human histories about the bridges that everyone would find interesting. I understand that people who have this book will look at the pictures first and try and find ‘their’ bridge, but eventually they’ll start to read the text associated with each structure."
In an exciting 'taster' of his book, Marshall shared a few interesting stories about Bucks' Bridges:
"At least two of Bucks' bridges have Civil War histories. Olney Bridge in Olney and Holman’s Bridge in north Aylesbury each had battles fought on them. Several bridges have been the locations of film shoots because of nearby Ealing Studios. Iver Bridge was seen in Chitty Chitty - Bang Bang and Windsor Hill Bridge was a location for Blithe Spirit. Also, many well-known architects and designers worked on BUCKS bridges. Gertrude Jekyll and Sir Edwin Lutyens designed Chenies Place on the River Chess and Humphrey Repton designed bridges at Stoke Park and West Wycombe Park."
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