I WRITE in response to your request for information regarding the date of the Flashback picture of Saturday, June 4. Looking at the work being undertaken at the bridge suggests that the photograph dates from 1905 when the original two-arch bridge was replaced by the present structure.

Close examination shows the solid and rather brutally-styled bridge of today in the foreground, with the original rather delicate twin-span bridge still behind it.

The loco and carriages certainly have an Edwardian look. Interestingly, subsequent pictures also connect with Worcester's railway history.

In the photo of Monday, June 6, the bridge is evidently the pre-1905 version and the steam launch has a Victorian feel.

Also to be seen running along the riverbank is the Butts branch, itself the subject of the photo on Wednesday, June 8. This showed the viaduct which carried the siding from the west end of Foregate Street station down to the riverbank.

This was constructed in 1860 to allow horseboxes to reach the racecourse, cattle to be unloaded near to the then market and with the intention of serving the various factories between there and Diglis.

As was often the case in those times, the Cathedral authorities refused permission for the line to go further on than the boundaries of the Cathedral.

The line was subsequently cut back when the road bridge was remodelled in the 1930s and the remaining stub went out of use in the mid 1950s.

It is still possible to see some remnants of this

viaduct between Infirmary Walk and Farrier Street.

A REECE,

Worcester.