It seems that the vast majority of the media coverage of Storm Desmond has focused on Cumbria and rightly so as the damage, destruction and tales of human suffering are acute there. But there are also other places which were affected and other stories which need to be told.
This little story tells the tale of the ‘wobbly bridge’ at the National Trust’s Allen Banks property in Northumbria. I visited the place in 2012 when I was on holiday and met one of my old colleagues from Wicken Fen Eric Wilton who is now the Lead Ranger in that Area.
The wobbly bridge (or to give it’s full name, the Victorian Suspension Bridge) is one of the only surviving features of the wilderness garden created in 1850 by Susan Davidson as part of the Ridley Hall estate.
My photo of the bridge in 2012
In May 2013 floods severely damaged the bridge which led to a fundraising campaign to restore it – see here – the campaign was successful and the bridge was repaired
The bridge has now be severely damaged again (photo courtesy of the NT Press Office blog)
So this part of Northumberland has seen a bridge that has survived since 1850 severely damaged in two huge floods – one in 2013 and one in 2015.
Two 1 in a 100 year floods in two years.
All entirely consistent with the climate change model
And this appeared in today’s Guardian – climate change partly responsible for Storm Desmond
