It’s hard to believe now that this idyllic rural scene was photographed in Shepperton in 1968. It shows the watersplash across the River Ash in Charlton Road. Sadly if you were to try to take this photograph today, you would be dodging traffic in the middle of the M3 motorway. The view is looking from the south east, downstream of the watersplash (the local name for a ford). The crossing for vehicles was immediately beyond the footbridge, and when the motorway was built a few years after the photo, opening in 1974, Charlton Road was split in two, with the Shepperton end being renamed Old Charlton Road, and the Charlton Village end becoming Nutty Lane. At the Charlton end was the piggery at Manor Farm, which certainly added to the impression of being in the countryside! It took a brave motorist to attempt the crossing at times when the river was full, failure often being accompanied by a request to the local farmer to use his tractor to extricate the stranded vehicle. The watersplash was also a popular venue for local children to paddle and try to net ‘tiddlers’.
There is still a small pedestrian bridge similar to this one which links Old Charlton Road to Nutty Lane, and also the two halves of the Ash Link nature reserve, Splash Meadow on the Shepperton side, and Nutty Wood on the Charlton side. They are maintained by Spelthorne Natural History Society and a real haven for wildlife, despite the thundering traffic nearby.
The River Ash itself is an offshoot of the River Colne at Staines Moor, and flows through Knowle Green at Staines, Ashford (there was a ford near the current Fordbridge roundabout), along by the side of Shepperton Studios, and then under Gaston Bridge and the bridge on Ford-bridge Road, Sunbury (once called Watersplash Road), until it flows in the Thames at The Creek.
I am indebted to Joy Johnson for donating her late father Bert’s collection of slides of Shepperton in the 1960s and 70s to the Local History Society, including the image above.