MISTAKES by engineers probably led to the collapse of Osney bridge in Botley Road, Oxford.

Work on sluices and weirs on the Thames before the incident had altered the course of the water flow and left the bridge vulnerable.

As we recalled last week, a section of the 120-year-old bridge fell into the river at 8.30am on Wednesday, December 2 1885.

An 11-year-old girl, Rhoda Elizabeth Miles, who was on her way to collect a morning paper at the train station, drowned and several other people were rescued from the water.

Peter Bowell, of Deanfield Road, Dean Court, Oxford, who has been researching the tragedy, found an article in Jackson’s Oxford Journal suggesting that work by the Thames Valley Drainage Commission and the Thames Conservators was responsible for the tragedy.

The newspaper reported: “The effect of these works was to bring the fourth arch from the Oxford end into the navigable channel of the river, so that the piers became exposed to the greater force of the flow of water, particularly in flood time.

“During the high flood of the last week, the new sluices have been opened and a great volume of water has been passing through the arch in question and through the sluices.

“It is supposed that the greatly increased ‘scour’ caused by this has gradually undermined the pier which has fallen in, as some slight cracks were observed in the roadway.

“The very appearance of the bridge as it now stands indicates very strongly that the pier has given way and that the adjoining masonry, many tons of which now lie at the bottom of the river, inevitably followed.”

The bridge was closed immediately after the collapse and a makeshift bridge was opened across the river at the end of Russell Street.

This was done by mooring a large dredging boat in the centre of the river, anchoring it to both banks and placing large pieces of timber from each bank to the boat and over it, so that light traffic could cross from one side to the other.

All heavy traffic between Oxford and the west, including carriages and horses, had to take a long detour via Wolvercote. A ferry boat was provided to take pedestrians across the river.

A month later, the Oxford Local Board accepted a tender from Charles Bossom, of Oxford, to build a temporary timber bridge over the Thames from Russell Street to East Street, “suitable for all traffic except traction engines and the like”.

It was unclear who was going to foot the £477 bill – the first indication of the legal arguments which were to delay the rebuilding of the collapsed bridge for three years.

l More on the bridge collapse story next week