Rossendale residents band together to repair hamlet bridge

Lancashire County Council is not responsible for repairs to the Grade II-listed Holme Lane Bridge – the only route out of the hamlet of The Holme, Townsendfold, near Rawtenstall.

Some of historic Holme Lane Bridge’s parapet stones had already fallen into the River Irwell and several more were in danger of falling in and cutting the hamlet off.

The bridge, with a datestone of 1830, was built by the Townsend family who used to live in the Townsend family mansion, which was situated in Holme Lane and demolished in the early 1960s.

How the bridge looked before the repairs (Image: Catherine Smyth) Andy Smith, owner of Glebe House, in Holme Lane, and owner of half of Holme Lane Bridge, had the repair work carried out and wrote to the 17 houses and care home in Townsendfold asking for them to support a GoFundMe to cover the cost of the works.

Already more than £16,000 has been raised, but another £9,000 is still needed to cover the costs. Ownership of the other half of the bridge is unregistered.

Ryan Godwin has owned Holme Manor Care Home since 2008 and has contributed towards the work.

He said: “Lancashire County Council published a report when they researched back 200 years before concluding that Holme Lane and Holme Lane Bridge were not their responsibility.

“As the development of the A682 Rawtenstall-Edenfield bypass cut off the only other access from Holme through to Haslingden, we would have been left stranded if we had not taken action to repair the bridge.

“We had a meeting with Rossendale and Darwen MP Andy MacNae and he gave us great advice.

"He also said we were as well just getting the work done as the bridge was private.”

Contractors found the parapet stones had been dislodged due to years of resurfacing the road.

As tarmacadam is fluid, the extra weight had pushed the stones out of alignment and they also found tree roots were growing through the structure.

A concrete slab has now been added to strengthen one side of the bridge and the parapet stones have been repositioned, with traditional external metal buckles holding them in place.

For the first time in years, the bridge no longer has cones and plastic railings around the edge and LCC has now removed the two-tonne weight limit and re-instated the original 10-tonne limit on the bridge.

However, Mr Godwin said further work would need to be carried out on the opposite side of the bridge in time as more stones were already out of alignment.

He said: “Without doing the work to the bridge, everyone in The Holme would have been marooned. It is up to everyone living here to take responsibility.”

If non-residents wish to contribute they can search for Holme Lane Bridge Repair on GoFundMe.