Bronze plaque on one of the south-east pillars on Cobden Bridge to mark its reconstruction.
It records that the new bridge was opened by Rt. Hon. Wilfred William Ashley, one time M.P. for the New Forest and owner of Broadlands, which he left to his daughter, the wife of Lord Louis Mountbatten.
At the time of the bridge’s opening Lucia Marion Foster Welch, was the Mayor. She was Southampton’s first female councillor and first woman mayor, who was also a suffragette in her early days.
The original Cobden Bridge, known as ‘Cobden Free Bridge’ was built in 1883 by the National Liberal Land Company who had purchased land in Bitterne Park to build housing. It was supported by iron pillars. The bridge was named Cobden Bridge after Richard Cobden, a prominent Liberal politician. Cobden was notable as a campaigner for free trade, and formed the Anti-Corn Law League. The bridge was opened on 27 June 1883 by Thorold Rogers, another Liberal politician and friend of Cobden, who was also chairman of the Land Company. The Land Company promised that it would be free to cross ‘forever’, in contrast to Northam Bridge and the Floating Bridge which both had tolls.
The new concrete bridge was much wider and more suitable to the traffic of the 1920s.
The plaque reads:
COUNTY BOROUGH OF SOUTHAMPTON
COBDEN BRIDGE
RECONSTRUCTED
1926 – 1928
* * *
REOPENED TO THE PUBLIC
DURING THE MAYORALTY OF
ALDERMAN MRS L.M. WELCH, J.P.,
ON 25TH OCTOBER 1928 BY
COLONEL THE RT. HON. WILFRED ASHLEY, M.P.,
MINISTER OF TRANSPORT
* * * * *
ALDERMAN W. MOULAND, J.P.,
CHAIRMAN OF WORKS COMMITTEE
SIR RICHARD LINTHORNE, O.B.E.
TOWN CLERK
S.G. STANTON, ASSOC. M. INST. C.E.
BOROUGH ENGINEER & SURVEYOR
* * * * *
H.W. FITZSIMONS, B.SC., M. INST. C.E.,
ENGINEER
A.E. FARR,
CONTRACTOR.
* * *
The plaque was refurbished in 2021 by Farmers Bronze Restoration, who also refurbished the Titanic Engineers Memorial.
Below: the new bridge under construction with temporary bridge on the right.
