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100 Spare a Thought for the Eels

Writer's picture: Dave GobleDave Goble

Updated: Mar 1, 2024

Built around 1175, The Clattern Bridge in Kingston upon Thames is one of the oldest intact bridges in England, spanning a minor chalk stream tributary of the Thames known as the Hogsmill River. It has witnessed many things, among which can be included the ducking of scolds; the “launching” of projectiles, (otherwise known as footballs); and the fitting of “eel tiles“ to aid the slithering of said fish upstream.


The Clattern Bridge (crossing an angry looking Hogsmill)


Up to the 18th Century it was used as a site for the ducking of scolds with a cucking stool. Kingston was still doing this as late as 1745 when the landlady of the Queen's Head was ducked before a large crowd for some unspecified “misdemeanour”. The bridge also featured in the traditional game of football held in the centre of Kingston each year, for centuries, on Shrove Tuesday. Men of the town would meet at the Druid’s Head and the two teams – the Townsend and the Thames-Street – would compete to get the ball in to one of the two goals: the great bridge over the Thames, or the Clattern Bridge (seems a bit harsh on the team aiming for the latter, much smaller bridge). William Biden tells that this started with an 8th Century dispute between rivals Kenulf and Kynard. The 'games" were highly competitive and typically quite violent affairs that saw the ball kicked and / or carried by two teams of varying number, battling with each other regardless of who actually possessed the ball. Not entirely unlike some of the football we see today.


In the late 18th Century, the authorities tried to suppress the game on account of its violence and disruption of the town's trade. The Riot Act was read in 1798 and the cavalry’s Hampton Court was sent for ... but they didn’t respond, they were busy playing football. The game was finally displaced from the public highway in 1867, when the authorities managed to move it to a local playing field. They were eventually transferred to purpose-built playing fields, and the modern game of football was developed.


The lower portion of Clattern Bridge consists of three arches made of properly dressed ashlar stones with a filling of flint rubble. In 1758, the local authority, which was then the Kingston Court of Assembly, agreed to widen the bridge. The addition was made of red brick bonded into the existing stone arches. Brick parapets were built and these were capped with stone. In 1852, the bridge was widened again with the addition of more brick-built structure, and an ornamental railing was also added. The structure is considered quite sound and, as mentioned, continues to bear a full load of modern traffic. It was scheduled as an ancient monument on February 16th 1938, and its structure is now Grade I listed.


"Eel Tiles"


In 2012, a zoological survey found that eels, (escaping from becoming the filling of a pie on a small island in the Thames about two miles north of here, I wonder), were having difficulty migrating upstream due to the fast flow of water across the smooth surface of the riverbed beneath the bridge. Tiles were fixed to the bed with “protrusions” so the eels could get some traction and wriggle up them to pass beneath the bridge and continue on their journey.


Don’t know about you, but when I learn stuff like this it warms the heart. With all of the awfulness in the world there are people recognising and fixing things like this. Bloody marvellous.


The bridge across a calmer Hogsmill

(Much to the liking of all of those eels, I suspect)



The feisty looking annual "game" of Shrove Tuesday football passes the front of the town hall, as shown in the Illustrated London News in 1846. The Clattern Bridge “goal” is about 80 yards off to the left of the picture.



Black arrow: Clattern Bridge (one of the goals) spanning the Hogsmill River

Red arrow: Kingston Bridge (the other goal) across the Thames


History records the first Kingston Bridge may have been constructed and in use as early as the 1190s, though it still had to span the Thames so the point stands about the disadvantaged team defending it.

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