On Elphinstone Road, between Fearon Road and Blacklands Drive, is a zebra crossing. What many don't notice these days is that this crossing marks the position of the old, wooden Ponbay Bridge (also called Pond Bay Bridge (see left map in Image1) and Ponby Bridge).
The bridge was where the parts of Ore Valley Stream called Manser Brook and Pond Brook met. The stream ran down from the Ridge toward Beaconsfield Road. Although there's no longer an obvious stream (a culvert now running under the road), there are still railings over the 'ditch' or channel to mark where the brook once trickled through the dip of the valley. The stream continues on toward Alexandra Park and is one of the two sources of the Priory Stream.
The name 'Pond Bay' was often used where there was an iron works. Considering, also, the name of 'Ore', it's likely the bridge was so called because an ironworks was located around there. The area was once stripped of most of its trees to fuel the furnaces to smelt the metal, the Romans being a big part of that in Hastings. The iron was then carried northward toward Bodium. J. Manwaring-Baines (1910-2002), author of Historical Hastings, suggests the stream might have been dammed in this spot to provide watermill power. Also, iron slag has been found in the area.
Another theory about the name is that it might have been shortened from 'Pond by the Bridge' (in the same way as Goodbye is shortened from 'God be with thee'.)
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| Image1: Elphinstone Road, 2025 (right) was once called Ore Lane, 1763 (left) |
In 1858, the repair of the bridge was put out to tender on 16th August. Tenders were received from:
- Nathaniel Winter, builder, Coburg Place, Hastings (30th August)
- Frederick Button, 5 Providence Road, Hastings (30th August)
- James Broadbridge & Son, 1 Coburg Place, Hastings (23rd August)
Nathaniel Winter won the tender in September 1858.
Twenty years later, in 1880, the road was barely used -- its terrible state made travelling by carriage too difficult. Because the road was privately owned, it was considered to be up to local landowners to fix it. So, on 3rd December, when the council was asked to help repair it, they refused. One councillor, Councillor Weston, argued along with trustees of the Frewen Estate, who owned the area (and which became Blacklands) to have a brick bridge replace the wooden bridge so that it could be used as the area developed up toward the Ridge.The other councillors disagreed, stating that it was outside of the town's interest and they weren't willing to pay townspeoples' rates (taxes). Even so, two years later, the council did in fact pay £130 toward the cost of the new brick bridge.
In the following image, I have taken the roads and fields of 1763 image and overlaid them onto a recent map as well as I could, highlighting them in red. Ore Lane/Elphinstone don't match up exactly, but well enough to see how the fields and roads lined up with how it is today. The Pond Bay (Ponbay/Ponby) Bridge is marked in yellow:
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| Image2: Elphinstone Road overlaid with the originl Ore Lane and the bridge marked in yellow. |
