ALVATIA: Ingsby - Little Bridge
Little Bridge at Ingsby[edit]
Formed from the trunks of two great trees felled many years ago, this bridge crosses the Ive 400 yards upstream from the Great Bridge. Each of the two trunks, with some of their bark and branch stumps intact, is three feet thick, 35 feet long, and weighs two tons; a gap of about one foot separates them. A clumsy roadway of smaller logs, cut to about five foot lengths, is (sort of) fastened to the upper surface of the trunks. Gaps, dips, rotten spots, and a few weeds testify to the informal nature of this bridge. The roadway is only about seven feet above the river surface, and the main support logs come to within three feet of the water.
In winter, the Ive often foams and splashes over this bridge. In some years, if the reeve finds the time, he will have villagers pull up the logs forming the roadway after the fall harvest, and stack them safely nearby to be re-used. In lazy years, the roadway remains into winter, and is carried off during the first good rain. Either way, it must be replaced in the spring.
Every generation or so, a mighty rainstorm will raise the Ive enough to carry off the bridge supports themselves; in that case, new trees must be felled, or the old logs recovered from where they are deposited by the flood. They probably end up behind the weir (see Ingsby Mill), unless the river floods especially high.
