An Elizabethan bridge that features in Thomas Hardy’s novel Tess of the D’Urbervilles has partially collapsed and been washed away.
image BBC website
BBC writes:
Cracks began to appear on the Grade II* listed Wool Bridge, which crosses the River Frome in Dorset, on Thursday.
Since then the wall foundation has slumped and been washed away, a county council spokeswoman said. The bridge has been closed to traffic for many years, except for pedestrians and cyclists, she added.
The collapse has not affected the arches of the bridge, Dorset County Council said. The council hoped to put large bags of aggregate into the river on Friday to help stop further erosion to the walls and to prevent damage to the arches. ‘The longer-term plan for repair will be to wait until summer when the conditions are better, dam the affected area off, to allow it to dry out and we can see what has happened,’ the spokeswoman added.
… It was considered to be the best preserved Elizabethan bridge in Dorset.
Read the article and see the images in the Dorset Echo
