SHE was on a simple errand to collect a morning newspaper for her family, but 11-year-old Rhoda Elizabeth Miles’s good turn was to cost her her life.

She was thrown into the River Thames and drowned when Osney Bridge partially collapsed as she walked across it at 8.30am on Wednesday, December 2, 1885.

Several other people were rescued, but little Rhoda was swept away by the strong current and her remains were not recovered for three years.

Today, thousands of motorists and pedestrians cross the bridge every week oblivious of what happened on that tragic day. There is no plaque on the bridge to record the incident which had been all but forgotten – until now.

Peter Bowell, of Deanfield Road, Dean Court, Oxford, has been researching the history of the disaster and has uncovered the whole fascinating story.

Jackson’s Oxford Journal newspaper reported that a crack appeared in the roadway on the 120-year-old bridge just after 8am and almost immediately, part of the stonework on the north side fell into the river.

“The fourth pier from the Oxford side split in the middle and gave way, and this caused the parapet, the footpath and about two or three feet of the roadway and the arch to suddenly collapse and fall into the swiftly running stream.”

Four people were thought to have been thrown in the river, one or more of whom were rescued by Mr Greenaway, of Mill Street, Osney, who “gallantly jumped into the water”.

There were several other narrow escapes. A Mr Yeatman also fell in and was rescued by ladder, while Mr M Solloway, of Wytham, and his son just reached safety in their cart before the collapse.

A reward of 20 shillings (£1) was offered to anyone finding Rhoda’s body. Her remains were eventually found in the river near Osney lock by an angler almost three years later on Sunday, November 18, 1888.

She had been living with Henry James Williams at 2 Swan Street, Osney, described as a stamper at Oxford Post Office and thought to be her stepbrother.

Her father, Thomas, had died in 1883 and her mother, also called Rhoda, had probably had to return to work as a result.

Mr Williams told an inquest jury that young Rhoda had been sent to the railway station for a morning paper when she drowned. In the three years between her death and the discovery of her remains, the story of the bridge collapse and its subsequent rebuilding became one of argument, delay and inconvenience.

More on the bridge collapse story next week