William Etheridge (baptised 3 January 1708 – 3 October 1776) was an English civil engineer and architect, best known for his work on several wooden bridges of mathematical design.

Biography

William Etheridge was born around 1708 in a small village of

Fressingfield Fressingfield is a village in Suffolk, England, east of Diss, Norfolk. In 2015 it had a population of 1021, with one shop (a Mace (shop)), a medical centre, public house, restaurant, primary school, and three churches, with Anglican, Baptist and ...

Suffolk Suffolk () is a ceremonial county of England in East Anglia. It borders Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south; the North Sea lies to the east. The county town is Ipswich; other important towns include Lowes ...

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. His parents were Charles Etheridge and Elizabeth Brett. He came from a long line of carpenters from Fressingfield and

Stradbroke Stradbroke ( ) is an English village in the Mid Suffolk district of the county of Suffolk. The ''Census'' of 2011 gave the parish a population of 1,408, with an estimate of 1,513 in 2018. Heritage The village was listed in the Domesday Book ...

. From 1744–1749, he worked on the supporting wooden structures during the construction of the Westminster Bridge, first as a foreman and then as the master carpenter.Cross-Rudkin 2002b, p. 217 Around 1748, he designed Old Walton Bridge. Sometime before 1750, he designed the Old Bridge at

Coleraine Coleraine ( ; from ga, Cúil Rathain , 'nook of the ferns'Flanaghan, Deirdre & Laurence; ''Irish Place Names'', page 194. Gill & Macmillan, 2002. ) is a town and civil parish near the mouth of the River Bann in County Londonderry, Northern I ...

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. In 1752, George Semple consulted Etheridge on the rebuilding of

Essex Bridge Essex Bridge may refer to: * Essex Bridge, Staffordshire * ''Essex Bridge'' (now Grattan Bridge Grattan Bridge () is a road bridge spanning the River Liffey in Dublin, Ireland, and joining Capel Street to Parliament Street and the south quay ...

Dublin Dublin (; , or ) is the capital and largest city of Republic of Ireland, Ireland. On a bay at the mouth of the River Liffey, it is in the Provinces of Ireland, province of Leinster, bordered on the south by the Dublin Mountains, a part of th ...

. Etheridge died on the 3 October 1776 in

Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bu ...

.Cross-Rudkin 2002b, p. 218

Westminster Bridge

Old Walton Bridge

In 1747, businessman and plantation owner

Samuel Dicker Samuel Dicker (died 1760), was an English politician who represented Plymouth in the British House of Commons in the eighteenth century, and was also responsible for the building of the first Walton Bridge in Surrey. Dicker owned plantations in ...

moved from

Jamaica Jamaica (; ) is an island country situated in the Caribbean Sea. Spanning in area, it is the third-largest island of the Greater Antilles and the Caribbean (after Cuba and Hispaniola). Jamaica lies about south of Cuba, and west of His ...

to a newly acquired estate in Mount Felix near Walton-on-Thames,

Surrey Surrey () is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in South East England, bordering Greater London to the south west. Surrey has a large rural area, and several significant urban areas which form part of the Greater London Built-up Area. ...

. In order to facilitate easier access to his new home, he lobbied for an

Act of Parliament Acts of Parliament, sometimes referred to as primary legislation, are texts of law passed by the Legislature, legislative body of a jurisdiction (often a parliament or council). In most countries with a parliamentary system of government, acts of ...

granting him rights to build a bridge and collect tolls on the spot. Walton-Shepperton Bridge (Building and Tolls) Act 1746, see

List of Acts of the Parliament of Great Britain, 1740–59 A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to: People * List (surname) Organizations * List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America * SC Germania List, German rugby union ...

; the Act is commonly cited as "20 Geo. 2 c. 22", which means "22nd Act passed during the session that started in the 20th year of the reign of

George II George II or 2 may refer to: People * George II of Antioch (seventh century AD) * George II of Armenia (late ninth century) * George II of Abkhazia (916–960) * Patriarch George II of Alexandria (1021–1051) * George II of Georgia (1072–1089) * ...

" The resulting latticework wooden bridge, known as Old Walton Bridge was designed by William Etheridge and built by Mr White of

Weybridge Weybridge () is a town in the Borough of Elmbridge in Surrey, England, around southwest of central London. The settlement is recorded as ''Waigebrugge'' and ''Weibrugge'' in the 7th century and the name derives from a crossing point of the ...

between 1748 and 1750. When it opened, its central span of 130 feet was the longest in Britain (succeeded in 1756 by

William Edwards William Edwards may refer to: Arts and entertainment *William Edwards (architect) (1719–1789), Welsh architect of the Pontypridd bridge in south Wales *William Camden Edwards (1777–1855), Welsh engraver *William Augustus Edwards (1866–1939), ...

's 140 feet long single-arch

Pontypridd Bridge The Old Bridge ( cy, Yr Hen Bont), which is now also known as the William Edwards Bridge or Pontypridd Bridge, was originally known as the New Bridge or Newbridge, is an arched single-span footbridge that spans the River Taff at Pontypridd in ...

). At the time, it was widely admired for its "strength, contrivance and remarkable great arch" and was even dubbed "the most beautiful wooden arch in the world" by one observer. The bridge was depicted by contemporary painters, most famously in two pictures by Canaletto. Despite Dicker's initial projections of 200 years lifetime, a 1778 survey found the bridge to be severely decayed. It was soon demolished and replaced by a brick-and-stone version built in 1783–1786.

Mathematical Bridge

The Mathematical Bridge is the popular name of a wooden footbridge in central Cambridge. It bridges the

River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...

, connecting two parts of

Queens' College, Cambridge Queens' College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Queens' is one of the oldest colleges of the university, founded in 1448 by Margaret of Anjou. The college spans the River Cam, colloquially referred to as the "light s ...

. The bridge was designed by Etheridge and built by

James Essex James Essex (1722–1784) was an English builder and architect who mostly worked in Cambridge, where he was born. He designed portions of many colleges of the University of Cambridge, and carried out major restorations of the cathedrals at Ely and ...

in 1749.

Old Coleraine Bridge

Sometime before 1750, Etheridge designed the Old Bridge over River Bann at

. It was a timber construction on masonry piers, replacing an earlier bridge damaged in 1732.

Notes

References

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Etheridge, William 18th-century English architects 1776 deaths 1700 births People from Fressingfield Architects from Suffolk