Not sure where this bridge is, but it shows a barge, and so it is here.
This is actually most people`s ideal canal scene, slowly chugging through the idyllic countryside, where children race to the bridge to wave at you. And on the right hand side you can see how the towpath runs beside the water, rising to the bridge. Now usually the towpath would have gone under the bridge so that the horse could have continued to pull the boat along, but in some cases the bridges were too small, and so the horse was unhitched and walked over the bridge to meet you on the other side. And in some cases, where the bridge was very long and the boat had no other power, the driver and his mate would have to lie on top of the boat and propel it through by their feet, a method called legging.
I am delighted to be able to add another set by this issuer, they are one of my favourites, possibly because they were amongst the first non-Brooke Bond sets that I ever acquired. We have a home page for all the Priory I-Spy cards, with our Card of the Day for the 10th of July, 2024, from "I-Spy Out and About" which you may think breaks my rule of alphabetical listing, but which was the first of these sets to ever be issued, in 1957.
Our set is described in our original British Trade Index part two, as :
Priory Tea & Coffee Co. Ltd., London, S.E.1.
Cards issued 1957-64. Small size 69 x 37 m/m. Special album issued to house the 13 series, listed below in order used in album. Series numbers appear only on album sheets.
- SERIES 8 "I SPY BRIDGES". Sm. Nd. (24) ... PTT-8
Now in our updated British Trade Index, the set appears slightly differently, as :
PRIORY Tea
Priory Tea & Coffee Co. Ltd., London, S.E.1. Issued about 1910, and 1957-64. Cards 69 x 37. Special album issued to house all 13 sets. Albums to take one or two sets were available for 6d. The `Series` No. appears only on the album sheets.
- SERIES 8 "I SPY BRIDGES". 1959. Nd. (24) ... PRI-645