Sunday saw a cavalcade of vintage and classic cars crossing the Tamar Bridge to mark its 60th anniversary of opening.

Dave Fry is a member of the Tamar Historic Transport Club (THTC), as well as being a St Dominick parish councillor and being involved in the village’s community shop, and helped plan the cavalcade of pre-1961 vehicles crossing the bridge.

He explained that the idea of the cavalcade was to celebrate the extraordinary change to local people’s way of life that the opening of the bridge brought. Gone were the queues of cars waiting for the Saltash ferry that once stretched all the way up the hill from the Waterside to Fore Street, or the long diversion around Callington and Tavistock via the single-track bridge at Gunnislake.

Suddenly getting across the Tamar from South East Cornwall to Plymouth became a whole lot quicker and easier.

Dave said that while members of the club had a whole range of vehicles right up to those from fairly recent decades, Sunday’s cavalcade was restricted to vehicles which were 60 years old and above. He said that originally the club was told that 12 could take part, but in the end 16 owners had signed up with their pre-1961 cars.

As well as Dave’s own Austin A40 Sports, which led the cavalcade, some of the other cars taking part included a 1959 Ford Popular, but wet weather in the morning meant a 1914 Model T Ford was unable to participate.

Instead, its owner drove a very nice 1934 MG J2 Sports car in the cavalcade instead. That meant they still had 16 vehicles taking part, and one of those was an impressive 1930 Rolls Royce Limousine.

The vintage and classic vehicles gathered in the Bridging the Tamar centre car park near the Bridge Manager’s office at midday, with the first cavalcade transit across the bridge from Devon to Cornwall taking place at around 12.30pm.

Dave said the event had gone really well and he’d spotted no fewer than three MPS – including South East Cornwall MP Sheryll Murray – in attendance, plus the Lord Mayor of Plymouth Cllr Terri Beer.

When asked if the cavalcade drivers all had to pay the toll to cross back from Cornwall to Devon, he said that they had been given “a special code” to avoid that.

As well as the cavalcade, a ceremony was held at the memorial commemorating the seven people who died during the construction of the bridge, five when a barge carrying workmen back from the centre of the river to the shore capsized and two in falls from the bridge structure.

For more about the history of the Tamar Bridge, memories of its construction and opening, views on what it’s like to climb to the top of its 70m towers or to walk along its under-deck walkways, and interviews with those involved in operating the bridge and running the Bridging the Tamar heritage centre, see this week’s Cornish Times’ special five-page feature, inside this week’s packed edition on sale in shops now.