South of the Alverbank Hotel is a small brick bridge built by the Royal Engineers in 1860 to replace a bridge that crossed the River Alver allowing John Wilson Croker, who lived in Alverbank until 1857, to get to the sea.
The River Alver once flowed from the wildgrounds south of Fareham seawards, towards Stokes Bay and turned eastward at Gomer Ponds to run the length of Stokes Bay finally exiting to the sea via a huge ‘Morass’ close to Fort Monckton.
But there is no river here now! Beneath the bridge is the overgrown, dried up, river bed, barely recognisable as such. In 1860 the River Alver was diverted into the newly constructed Stokes Bay Moat which ran along the length of Stokes Bay from No1 and No2 Batteries in the west to Fort Gilkicker and Fort Monckton in the east.
Known as The Stokes Bay Lines it was completed by 1870 at a cost of £75,120. The moat itself was lined with concrete and was 60ft in width and contained water to depth of 9ft at high water of Spring tides.
The R.E. bench mark (a broad arrow) on one of the pillars that reads 5.56ft above LMS (Local Mean Sea level). The brick parapets and pillars have been re-built but the bench mark and inscription survived.
There was a second bridge here crossing the moat that can be seen in old postcards.