People had gathered on the bridge to watch a clown in a barrel being towed down the River Bure by a team of geese. As the barrel passed under the bridge they rushed for the other side to catch more of the spectacle, causing supporting chains to snap. Scores of people, mostly women and children, were hurled into the river and local men took to their boats to save them.
According to an account in the Norwich Gazette, tragedy on a far greater scale was averted:
It can be easily imagined that a mass of people thus precipitated into water, five feet deep, would have but a small chance of saving themselves; and but for the prompt assistance which was afforded, few, very few, would have escaped. Boats and wherries were immediately in motion and from 20 to 30 with gallant crews, were soon among the drowning people, picking them up with wonderful rapidity. Many were put on the shore in their wet clothes who went directly home, and no account was taken of the number thus saved.
The tombstone of nine-year-old bridge disaster victim Thomas Beloe, in nearby St Nicholas’ Churchyard, depicts the tragedy. In fact saving lives became something of a theme for Great Yarmouth, with local boat-builder James Beeching winning the 100 guinea first prize in an 1851 competition to find the best self-righting lifeboat.
THE SELF-RIGHTING LIFEBOAT
Lifeboat design was still in its infancy in the Victorian era and the 1851 competition was launched to design a new and better boat. It had several stated aims. Lifeboats of the future needed to be lighter in construction than previous models so that they could more easily be launched from the beach. They also needed to be cheaper to make so that more could be produced. With such generous prize money on offer the competition attracted 280 entries from across Britain, Europe and even the USA.
Following adjustments, and with inspiration taken from other designs submitted for judging, the Beeching lifeboat became the basis of the longstanding Norfolk and Suffolk class of boats. Throughout the second half of the nineteenth century the design was improved, but the Beeching boat’s enduring feature was its buoyancy, with air-filled cases at the bow and stern and cork cladding. It effectively discharged the seawater which frequently swamped small, open boats through valved tubes, and an iron keel acted as ballast. It was stable, self-righting, fast, robust and comparatively roomy. Boats like this saved countless hundreds of lives during the remainder of the century.
A self-righting boat like Beeching’s was popular with lifeboat men. Analysis of the number of capsizes between 1852 and 1874 showed their instincts were probably right. In that time, 35 self-righters rolled with the loss of 25 men out of a total of 401. At the same time 8 non-self-righters capsized, killing 87 men out of 140.
© Mary Evans Picture Library
A lifeboat rests on its carriage, c. 1880.
However, a train from Great Yarmouth heading for Norwich was involved in a night-time collision on 10 September 1874 in which 25 people died and 50 were injured. It occurred after a signalling error had allowed a 14-coach mail train to rush headlong on a single track into the 13-coach passenger train from Yarmouth. Although the fronts of both trains were smashed to smithereens, the rear coaches were left relatively unscathed. One account of the accident ends with an odd incident that perplexed everyone who witnessed the wreckage:
© Illustrated London News Ltd/Mary Evans
George Bidder (1806–1868).
It would be difficult to conceive of a more violent collision … yet it is said that two gentlemen in the last carriage of one of the trains, finding it at a sudden standstill close to the place to which they were going, supposed it had stopped for some unimportant cause and concluded to take advantage of a happy chance which left them almost at the doors of their homes. They accordingly got out and hurried away in the rain, learning only the next morning of the catastrophe in which they had been unconscious participants.
The Great Eastern main line from Yarmouth heads to Reedham, distinguished by one of four swing bridges in the area. This bridge across the River Yare, and the one at Somerleyton – on the branch line that connects Reedham with Lowestoft – spanning the River Waveney were financed by Sir Samuel Morton Peto, entrepreneur and engineering enthusiast.
Both bridges are made from a stout collection of wrought iron, brick, cast steel and timber. When it is in place for trains, the bridge ends rest on piers by the river banks. If it is open for river traffic then the bridge pivots on a central pier using cast steel wheels with a diameter of 16 inches. The load of the open bridge is shouldered by two truss girders.
Even today the bridges are an object of wonder. The man who built the bridges, George Bidder, was equally remarkable. The son of a Devon stonemason, his natural ability with maths manifested itself before he could read or write and his father had him perform in shows around the country for money, under the title of ‘a calculating boy’. Fortunately, his potential was spotted by two benefactors, who ultimately paid for his education. In adulthood he teamed up with the great Robert Stephenson to work on major railway projects at home and abroad. Perhaps his proudest achievement was to build London’s Victoria docks.
© Alan Reed/Alamy
The Reedham railway swing bridge crossing the River Yare.
The man who financed the swing bridges has a story that perhaps even exceeds that of Bidder. Sir Samuel Morton Peto was born in Woking, Surrey, to a tenant farmer. After two years at boarding school he was made an apprentice to his builder uncle, Henry Peto. In 1830 he took over the business with his cousin Thomas Grissell, and together they changed the landscape of London by building the Houses of Parliament, Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column, among other landmarks. The business then became involved in building railways.
After he bought Somerleyton Hall in 1844, Peto invested heavily in the area, fashioning Lowestoft into a thriving port and town. He built the railway line to it from Reedham, which opened in 1847 after some two years in construction.
© Tom Mackie/Alamy
Somerleyton Hall, the home of Samuel Peto.
However, his partner Grissell was becoming nervous about what he perceived as reckless risks taken by Peto in pursuit of railway contracts. The partnership was dissolved and Peto began business anew with his brother-in-law Edward Betts in 1846. They also worked with engineer Thomas Brassey, a millionaire railway builder and civil engineer credited with an enormous number of projects. Previously Brassey had worked with George Stephenson and his acolyte Joseph Locke, and by the time he died Brassey had built a sixth of the railways in Britain and half of those in France.
The trio of Peto, Betts and Brassey built numerous railways at home and abroad. Peto earned the gratitude of Prince Albert by ensuring there were suitable rail links to the Great Exhibition at Crystal Palace in 1851. However, one of the most significant contributions Peto – with Betts and Brassey – made to history was to build a rail link in the Crimea, where Britain was at war with Russia.
© Library of Congress, Prints & Photographs Division
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