Students prove it's not a bridge too far

More than a dozen youngsters from Kingdown School in Woodcock Road were invited to the official launch of the six-metre long bridge, made by their own hands, at the Hunter’s Moon Holiday Park in Henford Marsh on Friday.

Nick Webster, head of design and technology at Kingdown, said: “We built the bridge at school and started it in September. It has been done during lesson time.

“We are fortunate enough to have some industrial units on site so we were able to build the bridge up to full-size in there.

“All of the parts for it were cut in the school workshops by the pupils and we built it up and finished it off over in the units.”

The bridge is behind the function room of the Hunter’s Moon pub, providing access to the pub from the log cabins, which surround the lake at the holiday park.

The side panels of the structure were based on the design of Beijing’s national stadium, the Bird’s Nest Stadium, used throughout the 2008 Olympics and Paralympics.

Mr Webster said: “It is fantastic for the children to have the opportunity to do something big like this that they, and their parents, can actually use.

“Any adult who sees what the children have done can’t fail to be impressed by what they have achieved.”

The structure, built by 15 and 16-year-old students, is the second bridge built by the school to be put up in the holiday park. A similar design was built in December 2005.

Materials for the work for this project and the 2005 one, were funded by Nick Clift, the owner of the holiday park, who also gave a contribution to the school to thank them for their efforts.

Mr Webster said: “The owner called me years ago and asked if I knew someone who wanted to make and design a steel bridge.

“He had two wooden bridges already that were in a very bad state.

“We did the first one in 2005 and then there was this second one still to do and I was just waiting for the right group to do it really.”