By Arthur Strand
At the junction between single-lane Soldiers Rise and Lower Wokingham Road there is a memorial stone.
This is a tribute to the Soldier who died and got up again before breathing his last.
Private R Lockhart died on the spot on July 26, 1855 while on a route march from Farnham to Wokingham.
The stone was erected by Wokingham Without Parish Council during the Jubilee Year of Queen Elizabeth II, back in 1977.
The railway bridge goes over the railway near the Nine Mile Ride junction with Soldiers Rise.
The actual railway bridge is not the bridge referred to as Kings Bridge which is at the bottom of the hill towards the Nine Mile Ride and would not be noticed if there had not been white railings on one side opposite the sewer place and the mobile phone aerial where the stream runs through private land to Queensmere.
At the opposite end of Soldiers Rise, down the slope beyond the junction where the memorial stone is situated is another bridge which the stream goes under the main road.
The stream rounds the hill and crosses back under the road into private woodland under another “proper” bridge then swings across to the back gardens of houses along Soldiers Rise meeting up with the white railings at Kings Bridge.
The reason that the railway bridge is not the Kings Bridge is because the three stream bridges were named before railways were invented.
Bridge one is Jack’s Bridge, bridge two is Queen’s Bridge, and the third is the King’s.
Number one is at Soldiers Rise junction with Lower Wokingham Road, the second is over the other side of the hill on the way to the roundabouts, and the third is at the Nine Mile Ride end of Soldiers Rise.
The stream is a tributary to the Emm Brook.
