Bridge Job for MVS Severn

After recent floods, the Tewkesbury based Severn Unit went out to clear a very large tree complete with its root system which had lodged against the historic 14th Century King John’s Bridge in the town after being washed down the River Avon.

Head of Unit Nic Price said, “The tree was sighted several weeks before that from the M5 Motorway bridge near Bredon, so we took a boat up the river to investigate and discovered that the tree was stuck fast with some of its branches firmly dug into the bottom of the river.”

Unfortunately when the river level rose it must have re-floated and negotiated all the bends in the river finally coming to rest between the first and second arch of the bridge some 3 1/2 miles downstream.

We realised that this was causing an obstruction and could not be left as it would form a dam stopping any more debris from passing under the bridge and over the weir so we set about trying to move it”.

The job proved extremely difficult but the team managed to get a rope ashore and the volunteers were then able to roll it so it was no longer anchored in the bed of the river.

It was then manually hauled to the shore and secured well away from the bridge until the Avon Navigation Trust could remove it.