Bridge to the Guards Club, Thames at Maidenhead

The Brigade of Guards Club on the Thames at Maidenhead, provided recreation for the Guards officers stationed at Windsor and Pirbright.

The large Club House contained a ballroom and in its heyday in the Victorian era, the Guards Club Ball naturally attracted debutantes and royalty. Outside there was of course a croquet lawn, a swimming pool and on the island - which this beautiful bridge leads to - a boathouse.

The foot-bridge was built around 1863. In times past willow baskets known as grig-wheels, were lowered into the Thames from the bridge to catch eels. The willows for the baskets was taken from the willows along the banks.

Today there is nothing left of the Club House, except its spire on the park-shelter, but this bridge remains as part of the pleasant Thames-side Park created by the Maidenhead Civic Society.