These bridges can tell many tales of battle and bloodshed.  There was a great skirmish on Caversham Bridge in the Civil War in a vain attempt on the part of the Royalists to relieve the siege of Reading.  When Wallingford was threatened in the same period of the Great Rebellion, one part of the bridge was cut in order to prevent the enemy riding into the town.  And you can still detect the part that was severed.  There is a very interesting old bridge across the upper Thames between Bampton and Faringdon.  It is called Radcot Bridge; probably built in the thirteenth century, with its three arches and a heavy buttress in the middle niched for a figure of the Virgin, and a cross formerly stood in the centre.  A “cut” has diverted the course of the river to another channel, but the bridge remains, and on this bridge a sharp skirmish took place between Robert de Vere, Earl of Oxford, Marquis of Dublin, and Duke of Ireland, a favourite of Richard II, upon whom the King delighted to bestow titles and honours.  The rebellious lords met the favourite’s forces at Radcot, where a fierce fight ensued.  De Vere was taken in the rear, and surrounded by the forces of the Duke of Gloucester and the Earl of Derby, and being hard pressed, he plunged into the icy river (it was on the 20th day of December, 1387) with his armour on, and swimming down-stream with difficulty saved his life.  Of this exploit a poet sings:—­

        Here Oxford’s hero, famous for his boar,
        While clashing swords upon his target sound,
        And showers of arrows from his breast rebound,
        Prepared for worst of fates, undaunted stood,
        And urged his heart into the rapid flood. 
        The waves in triumph bore him, and were proud
        To sink beneath their honourable load.

Religious communities, monasteries and priories, often constructed bridges.  There is a very curious one at Croyland, probably erected by one of the abbots of the famous abbey of Croyland or Crowland.  This bridge is regarded as one of the greatest curiosities in the kingdom.  It is triangular in shape, and has been supposed to be emblematical of the Trinity.  The rivers Welland, Nene, and a drain called Catwater flow under it.  The ascent is very steep, so that carriages go under it.  The triangular bridge of Croyland is mentioned in a charter of King Edred about the year 941, but the present bridge is probably not earlier than the fourteenth century.  However, there is a rude statue said to be that of King Ethelbald, and may have been taken from the earlier structure and built into the present bridge.  It is in a sitting posture at the end of the south-west wall of the bridge.  The figure has a crown on the head, behind which are two wings, the arms bound together, round the shoulders a kind of mantle, in the left hand a sceptre and in the right a globe.  The bridge consists of three piers, whence spring three pointed arches which unite their groins in the centre.  Croyland is an instance of a decayed town, the tide of its prosperity having flowed elsewhere.  Though nominally a market-town, it is only a village, with little more than the ruins of its former splendour remaining, when the great abbey attracted to it crowds of the nobles and gentry of England, and employed vast numbers of labourers, masons, and craftsmen on the works of the abbey and in the supply of its needs.