Frank, Nick and Ian were called out to secure a small footbridge on the path by the mill dams in Middle Dean. It had been tipped down the hillside and, although someone had rescued and replaced it, it still needed to be secured to prevent further vandalism.
We arrived with a drill, a variety of drill bits, steel brackets, rawlplugs and screws to secure the bridge to the concrete base. However, our attempts to drill a sufficiently deep hole in the concrete were thwarted by a drill that was not up to the job and/or very tough ancient concrete. However, Frank spotted the original guide channels for an old gate or penstock set into the concrete walls underneath the bridge and realised that we could slot timbers into these and secure them to the main beam of the bridge. Good idea - but we had not brought any timber long enough with us!
Not to be beaten we found a fairly decent discarded piece of wood, that must have been part of the bridge at one time. It fitted nicely into the channel. Another small wooden section was attached to other side of the bridge to prevent it sliding - job done!
Success! The new additions to the footbridge should now prevent it from being easily removed.
