Bridge Too Far!

 

A feature of some old Dorset bridges is a cast iron plate dating back to the late 1820s. In the name of the then County Clerk of the Peace, T Fooks, it warned anyone convicted of damaging the bridge would be liable to be transported for life. Under the Malicious Injuries to Properties Act of 1827, individuals could also be flogged while other offences carried the death sentence. Those found guilty, if male, could be flogged ‘once, twice or thrice.’

Transportation would mean being sent most likely to an Australian penal colony with little prospect of a return home. Alternatively, the individual could be sent to Bermuda. This was less appealing than it seems as the convict was put to work in terrible conditions building the Navy’s Bermuda Dockyard. As diseases were rife, the prospects for survival were not good. While waiting for a transport vessel, convicted individuals would be kept in convict hulks berthed opposite either Plymouth or Portsmouth Dockyard. There they would be put to work in the dockyards until departure. Portsmouth hulks were berthed off Rat Island next to a large naval abattoir in Gosport. Many convicts did not survive the hulks and were buried on the island which flooded at high tide.

Because the plates contained the word ‘Dorset’, it was decided they should be removed during World War II. It was feared if the Germans invaded it could help them determine their location. Most were replaced after the war but a few did disappear. Replacements were manufactured by a Bridport foundry.

In August 2019, a transportation warning sign was knocked off a bridge near Dorchester by a tractor. Fortunately for the driver, forced removal to the antipodes ceased back in 1867. Today, such an offence would more likely be regarded as damage to a national heritage asset.

(Image below: old convict bones from Rat Island.)