IT WAS the days when the local pub was the centre of the community and when, once a year, the regulars of one particular Southampton local planned a day out in a horse-drawn charabanc.

In their best clothes, bowler hats and straw boaters, the regulars of the Bridge Inn in Cracknore Road, Freemantle gathered outside the pub for this photograph just before setting off on their outing.

• Southampton's Lost Pubs Part Two - in pictures >>

Back then the pub was run by landlord George Field and was said to be a favourite haunt of many of the old stokers who worked on the great Southampton transatlantic liners such as the Aquitania and Mauretania, as these crew men lived in the streets near the pub. When the seamen were on leave they would congregate at the Bridge Inn and meet up to chat about their times on board the ships over a pint of beer, as the pub didn’t serve any spirits back then.

According to Southampton archives, the pub – now converted into houses – closed its doors for the last time on April 5, 1974, having had a licence since 1869. In the early years of the last century the pub belonged to Scrase’s Star Brewery. It later became the property of Strong’s Romsey Brewery, and was taken over by the Whitbread Group in 1969. In its early days the pub was known as the Railway Bridge Inn, after the nearby footbridge over the London to Bournemouth railway track, and Cracknore Road was then known as Lodge Road.

Next week Hampshire Heritage will look back at the Engineer’s Arms, Northam.