Didcot GeoCache Series
After our recently placed GeoCache Series at Great Western Park, Didcot, we decide to place a few more caches in other parts of Didcot and surrounding villages, in order to honour local heros, and to reflect our rich local history, stories and heritage. We hope you will enjoy these new caches and may also learn something new when you are caching, thank you!
All our placed caches can be viewed at this public bookmark list: https://coord.info/BMFEC4E
Didcot #293 - Hopkins Bridge (Officially Known as Little Bridges # 3396, Hopkins Bridge)
Hopkins Bridge is a road bridge located in Didcot, Oxfordshire, carrying the A4130 Northern Perimeter Road over the Ladygrove Brook. It serves as a prominent transition point where urban Didcot meets the rural Oxfordshire countryside.
1. Key Details & Features
- Footpath Link: A public footpath passes underneath the bridge, creating a crucial pedestrian and cycling link between the Ladygrove residential development and areas heading toward Wittenham Clumps to the east.
- Infrastructure History: The bridge has undergone bank and backfill stabilisation works by Oxfordshire County Council to resolve slope stability and road unevenness caused by soil settling near its abutment.
- Surrounding Context: It sits just north of the Ladygrove cycle paths and is a focal point for infrastructure planning in the ongoing expansion of northeast Didcot
2. History of Bridge
Hopkins Bridge was constructed during the 1990s as a fundamental component of Didcot’s northern urban expansion. Its creation is directly tied to the development of the Ladygrove housing estate—a massive residential project that transformed the rural landscape north of the Great Western Main Line.
(a) Chronology and Purpose
- The 1990s Expansion: As the Ladygrove estate expanded rapidly, existing local lanes could no longer handle the traffic. The A4130 Northern Perimeter Road was commissioned to bypass the town centre, and Hopkins Bridge was built to carry this new ring road over the Ladygrove Brook and a designated flood drainage plain.
- Naming Origin: The bridge was named in recognition of the Hopkins family, who were prominent local landowners and farmers. They historically farmed the agricultural fields that were repurposed to build the Ladygrove development.
- Pedestrian Access: From its inception, the bridge was engineered with high clearance underneath. This was deliberate, ensuring that a historic public footpath remained open, allowing residents safe, grade-separated walking access beneath the busy A4130 ring road toward the Wittenham Clumps.
(b) Modern Maintenance History
Because the bridge was built over a natural brook and soft floodplain soils, it has faced ongoing structural challenges due to earth settling.
- Soil Settlement: Over its first two decades, the heavy traffic on the A4130 caused the road embankments on either side of the bridge to sink slightly, creating a notoriously uneven "bump" for motorists.
- Stabilisation Project: To remedy this, Oxfordshire County Council undertook major engineering works on the bridge. Contractors injected specialised polymer grout and rebuilt the approach embankments to permanently stabilise the slope and level the road surface.
About this Multi-cache
At the published coordinates, you will be standing on the footpath on the Hopkins Bridge. Please look for a metal plaque on the bridge, the number of words on the top line is A.
On the second line it mentions a person's name, who has B letters in their surname.
The plaque also mentions a month and year. Let the month be C-th month of the year, and the year be DEFG.
The bottom left of the plaque mentions another person, whose surname has H letters.
Finally, the bottom line mentions a number, which is JKLM.
The final coordinates are a short distance away at:
N51 ( B / A ) ( F - D ) . ( E - M ) ( G - L ) ( C - H + A )
W001 ( B - H ) ( C - M ) . ( J + F ) ( K * G ) ( C / A + L )
The checksum of all the digits in the final coordinates is 61.
Please also note:
Please take extra care when approaching and searching for this cache, and do not get too close to the busy A4130 road, where cars are constantly passing with a 50 MPH speed limit. You will be searching for this cache at your own risk.
Please do not park on the busy A4130 roads, and instead please use the recommended on-street parking within Ladygrove Estate (see waypoint).
Please bring your own pen, and open & close the cache lid carefully so the cache and log book can survive longer. You might need a tweezer to help retrieve the log paper.
Please also replace exactly as found due to obvious reason, and please be careful with the possible thorns, stinging nettles, and overhead tree branches! Long sleeves, trousers, and gloves are recommended.
You do not need to cross any fence or enter any private land.
Thank you and enjoy GeoCaching!
FTF: Congratulations to Mad H@ter and muddy legs for thier Joint FTF on 2 October 2026.
The Little Bridges series was started by Stanthews in 2009 to highlight small footbridges in remote parts of Wiltshire. Since then, the series has been expanded by others all over the country and starting to spread fast. There is a stats listing, so you can see how many Little Bridges you have found, you can find it here:Little Bridges Geocaching Series. If you would like to add to the series, please go to this site, on the tab Get Involved click number request and fill in the form. To qualify, the bridge must be a foot bridge too small for vehicles, please make sure your title exactly matches “Little Bridges # xxxx then the name” including spaces so it will get picked up and added to stats list.