A bridge too far

It was a lovely day so we decided to go for a walk and feed the ducks.Ducks were few fishermen many. (we didn't feed them!) To get to the duck pond we walk along a little lane know locally as field tops.When you get to the other end you are in a little part of our town where my family has lived since the 17oo's.Its full of old cottages scattered amongst the newer buildings,and old buildings with new uses.

Half way along the lane is a little bridge,it seems to be stuck in the middle of nowhere now, on one side of it are NHS offices and the other is a housing estate.You can't cross it as its up in the air the land must have been dug away and lowered when building began.

The date on one side of the bridge is 1899 (very hard to see in the above photo sorry)

And the date on the other side 1891.

When i was a small child i used to walk along here with my grandma,she would tell me the most fantastic stories of her childhood growing up at the other end of the lane.

She also would tell me the story of the wealthy mill owner who had a Mistress. She lived across the fields in a little village.The village and the mill were separated by 2 big walls that had been built to house a little lane that ran along the field tops.The wealthy mill owner decided to build a bridge so his Mistress could cross it to be with him.He started building his bridge in 1891 but his wife found out and work stopped.It wasn't until his wife died 8 years later that the bridge was finished and the mill owner and his Mistress could be together.

I thought as i got older that the story may have been made up by grandma or one of those stories passed down that you just never know if its the truth.Whilst doing my family tree and researching the area i found the story in a book and found it is in fact true.