28/06/2026
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๐๐๐ ๐ ๐ ๐๐๐ฌ๐ฌ๐ข๐ ๐ฌ๐ญ๐จ๐ซ๐ฒ ๐๐๐จ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐๐ก๐ข๐ญ๐๐ฒ ๐๐ฐ๐ข๐ง๐ ๐๐ซ๐ข๐๐ ๐
For our amazing followers. As we learn of Whitby's famous swing bridge being closed for repairs, and as we await its re-opening, we thought you might appreciate a free story from the pen of C M Vassie! (This story comes from his collection of short stories about Whitby: The Whale Bone Archers) The author claims this is a true historical account of an event that occurred during the opening of the new bridge in 1909. We are not so sure ... :-)
https://injinipress.co.uk/product/the-whale-bone-archers/
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When Mabel Theresa Duncombe officially opened
the new Whitby swing bridge in July 1909 she could
scarcely have imagined the impact the new crossing
would have, not only on the living but also on the
dead.
Since 1351 tolls had been collected at what was
then a wooden bridge over the Esk, and the new
bridge of 1909 was not the first opening bridge to
connect the two sides of the town, the first swing
bridge having opened in 1833. But the new bridge
was the first to greet the arrival of the motor car.
In March 1910 the first Yorkshire car, a Jowett
6.4 HP light car with a 816cc flat twin water-cooled
engine, arrived in Whitby, paid the toll and crossed
the Esk from west to east, to the amazement of the
local population. There were some 700 cars on the
roads of England in 1900 but none had ventured as
far as Whitby. It was a great occasion.
The driver of the car was Charles Copperthwaite,
inventor of the spring-loaded hunting boot, a device
that enabled the wearer to โbag more grouse than
a Leaping Lordโ. In the car with him was his wife
Bromelia.
They parked outside the newly built Customs
House Hotel on Bridge Street, now known as the
Dolphin Hotel, where they met the magnet magnate
Fred Flowers and his fiancรฉ Gertrude Quince
Lugs, who had travelled to Whitby by train. The two
couples had what one of the waitresses called โthe
largest meal I ever did serveโ as the party declared
that they wished to eat everything on the menu,
accompanied by all the ales and wines the hotel had
to offer. It was said that, in his cups, Fred Flowers
had even tried to eat the menu itself.
Towards midnight the party had eaten their fill,
smoked more ci**rs and drunk more port than any
mortal soul before or since.
Following the somewhat tetchy transport-related
disagreement that had occurred during the twelfth
course of devilled crab, Copperthwaite decided it
was time to prove to Flowers that the age of the
ยญmotor car had arrived and he therefore declared that
he would drive them both to Sandsend and โput the
car through its pacesโ.
The hotel manager, Bram Eskerby, sought in vain
to persuade the party to wait until morning and later
told the Whitby Gazette that all four were โsome-
what the worse for wearโ.
Copperthwaite and Flowers were adamant. While
their lady folk staggered up to the bedrooms, the two
men donned leather helmets and goggles, climbed
into the car and set off across the swing bridge.
They did not even make it to the other side. Eye-
witnesses testified that the car, having veered wildly
from side to side, stopped just past the middle of the
bridge. The men were heard laughing then singing.
Presently, insults were thrown back and forth. A win-
dow on the second floor of the hotel flew open and
Bromelia was heard shouting into the night, begging
her husband to reverse back across the bridge to the
hotel so that they might all get a good nightโs sleep.
โBugger that for a game of soldiers, Bromelia! We
will sleep it off right here,โ Copperthwaite replied at
the top of his voice. โLook at the view, woman!โ
A short time later the window was closed, the two
men were asleep and quiet returned to the harbour,
the only sounds being the gentle lapping of water
and the clicking of the rigging against the masts of
the boats.
At five in the morning, shortly before dawn, the
first ship appeared in the harbour with the rising tide
and the bridge operator, roused from his slumbers
in the bridge house, put the motors into gear. The
two sides of the bridge began to rotate and the road
sections swung round ninety degrees to create the
channel through which the tall ship might pass into
the safety of the upper harbour.
It was precisely at the moment the ship was passing
through the open bridge that Charles Copperthwaite
woke from his drunken slumbers. On seeing a vessel
passing within a few metres of his face, confused
as to his situation and groggily concluding that his
eyes were playing tricks on him, Copperthwaite
became alarmed. He lurched out of the car, cranked
the starter handle and fired up the engine, clambered
back into the vehicle and raced forwards along the
road towards what he imagined must be safety.
Since the bridge was open, the car barely covered
twenty metres before driving off the end of the road
and plunging into the icy waters. Blind drunk and
stuck in the dark in a car at the bottom of the harbour,
the two men died before they could be saved.
It is said that on March mornings when the bridge
is opened before daybreak, you can sometimes see
a ghostly Jowett 6.4 HP light car with a 816cc flat
twin water-cooled engine suddenly appear, only to
speed across the short stretch of road and fly off the
end into the water, accompanied by muffled cries
and a deep male voice shouting:
โBugger that for a game of soldiers, Bromelia.โ
