The Hayling Bridge and Wadeway (also known as Langstone Bridge) Ralph Cousins – November 2013 An early engraving of the bridge. Note the sails on the Old Mill. The Wadeway to Hayling John Morley OBE The Wadeway Investigation of the Early Medieval Crossing Point from Langstone Village to Hayling Island Julie Satchell Maritime Archaeology Trust www.maritimearchaeologytrust.org £5 This booklet can be viewed on line at: www.thespring.co.uk/museum/heritage-booklets/ Heritage Booklet 25
[email protected] 023 9248 4024 2 INTRODUCTION Vic Pierce Jones Will our road system cope with more houses and cars in the future? What does history tell us? If you had been looking out to Langstone from Northney in February 1825 you would have seen a steam tug pulling two barges east towards Thorney. On board each was an escort of four 'redcoats' armed with muskets and they were carrying a total of 75 tons of gold bullion, possibly worth in today's values one billion pounds. They were the first to use a new canal from Portsmouth Harbour via Chichester, Arun and Godalming, eventually docking (in two days, sixteen hours) close to the Bank of England in the City of London. The canal was the brainchild of William Huskisson, the Minister of Works and MP for Chichester. It was his answer to the same economic problems we have today: unemployment and the need for more lending by the banks. Unfortunately the canal never achieved its early promise being supplanted by the railways in the 1840s. Poor Huskisson himself became the first person to be killed in a railway accident whilst taking a comfort break beside the carriages of a train near Liverpool.