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| Version | User | Scope of changes |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 29 2008, 6:40 AM EST (current) | seasalt | 8 words added |
| Jan 29 2008, 6:39 AM EST | seasalt | 425 words added, 2 photos added, 1 photo deleted |
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The Toll Bridge Cottage
Shaun Smith
I am trying to obtain some information on the toll bridge cottage near the halfpenny bridge. Can you help gain some history please.
Some history of the 'Ha'penny Bridge can be read here.
Saltburn Joker risks life - this story appered in an edition of the Evening Gazette: can anyone add a date?
A practical joker risked his life to give residents and holiday makers an early morning shock at Saltburn today. For beneath the centre span of the 180ft high Halfpenny Toll Bridge which spans the Valley Gardens - the scene of many suicides in the past years - hung a lifelike dummy from the end of a 20ft rope which swayed to and fro in the breeze.
Many people had reported a 'body' hanging from the bridge to the police.
Among the first to see it was Mrs Amy Jackson, aged 56, of the Toll Bridge Cottage. She glanced out of her bedroom window and saw the dummy swinging from the end of the rope about 50 yards away.
A Nasty Shock
"I got a nasty shock," she told the Evening Gazette, later.
"From my window it looked very real, I was sure someone had hanged himself. Whoever the culprit was he might have used his energy to better purpose than to frighten people in this way."
Toll keeper John William Jackson aged 68, went on duty at 7 a.m. but did not notice the dummy. As he crossed the bridge he did see a number of white, painted footprints, about a dozen in all and paint marks on the rail.
"I knew nothing about it until the police arrived," he said.
Whoever hung the dummy must have risked his life, for it was tethered on girders on the underside of the bridge. It is thought that he must have climbed over the rail with the help of a rope.
Carefully made
The problem of how to get the effigy down was solved by a local builder, Mr Fred Gall. Using a grappling iron, he hung it over the side of the bridge, but as he began to haul the dummy up its rope snapped and it hurtled into a stream below
Tied to it was a notice board, but when the dummy was recovered it was found that the board read: Motor vehicles cannot use this bridge.
The Dummy had been carefully made. It had on black shoes, grey socks, a pair of dark grey trousers, grey jersey and a cap, the face was a painted carnival type mask. Its body was a sack stuffed with newspaper and its legs consisted of a woman's nylon stockings also stuffed with paper. A needle and thread had been used to stitch it together.
