-703x458.jpg "Hunters Bridge c1930 looking west")
Thousands of motorists drive over the railway on Hunter’s Bridge every day, but few probably know how it got it’s name.
Local celebrity
James Hunter farmed Peartree Farm, a 200 acre estate, roughly in a position where Peatree Lane is today. His father had moved to the area from Scotland in 1868 to be nearer London, and had stunned the locals by devoting all of his land, apart from his orchards, which were patrolled by peacocks, to growing potatoes. With over 400 acres in production, people came from far and wide to to see them.
Temporary bridge
It was he who first paid for a temporary bridge to be built across the railway tracks and the road that continued, now Bridge Road, was called Hunters Lane (though very much a cart track, with Sherrards Park Wood coming right down to its edge). His son, another James Hunter, was in residence, when the land was bought by the Garden City Company in 1920.
He insisted on retaining control of his farmhouse, shut himself away from the townsfolk, and became a virtual recluse. He died in 1938.
.jpg){kind=link}
Add your comment about this page
I always liked Hunter’s bridge going right back to the late 1960s especially when standing near to it’s highest point where the main railway line passes underneath the bridge and it’s wide panoramic views looking eastwards and down the hill towards Bridge road at the bottom of the hill and the views of the large white’ish/grey Shredded Wheat factory across from the railway land with a big open blue or grey sky background filling the sky.