Shillingford Bridge occupies a romantic position, which strikes the eye more strongly from being unlike the rest of the country, which bears an open and dreary aspect.

[2] Thomas Baskerville's travel journal of 1692 reports "At Shillingford a great barge to waft over carts, coaches, horse and man".

[2] The Shillingford to Reading Turnpike Trust was created in 1764 with powers to improve and maintain the existing road and to take responsibility for building the new bridge.

[6] Over 100 Berkshire and Oxfordshire landowners were trustees including Viscount Fane, Lord Charles Spence and the Honourable Peregrine Berie who were all named in the Act of Parliament.

[2] Work on the bridge did not begin until 1766 when stone foundations, piers and abutments were built supporting a wooden trestle road bed.

Jackson's Oxford Journal gives the precise opening date as 25 April 1767 and records that the bridge was "fenced with a neat Chinese Railing".

[12] A few months later on 18 June 1827 the Reading Mercury noted that "the Substantial Stone Bridge over the River Thames at Shillingford has for a long time been sufficiently complete for the passage of travellers and their carriages and it will very shortly be finished in all its ornamental parts".

Twenty years later, in 1872, a law was passed allowing the trustees and owners of turnpikes and toll-bridges to surrender their rights to the local highway authority.