Thom's Blog

This is the old Trent Bridge (apparently called Hethbeth Bridge in the Middle Ages).

It is now in the middle of the road about 100 metres from the Trent – I’m assuming that the river used to be much wider, and perhaps shallower too.

There has been an important bridge on this site for over a thousand years (at least since 924AD), but the one pictured here (or at least the arches) has been dated to 1364. The photograph below shows the bridge at some time before 1930, before the surrounding land was raised.

Finally, here is what I assume to be a painting of the bridge before it was replaced in 1871. The river does indeed appear to be wider and shallower than today’s Trent.

Note: The first two images are my own (taken with Instagram’s Kelvin filter) and the latter two are reproduced from Links With Old Nottingham, published in 1935. I was lucky enough to find a copy (in Sherwood’s fantastic Geoff Blore’s Book Shop) but it is also available online at Nottinghamshire History.

I saw this today. The remnants of a thousand ‘lost dog’ and ‘wanted’ posters on a telegraph pole. Beautiful.