Bridges

There were probably footbridges across all the Cole fords by the end of the C18th. These timber structures were not infrequently swept away by floods- which worsened as the destruction of woodland caused faster run-off from the clay, though they subsided as quickly as they rose. Even today the river can rise as much as six feet from its usual six inches in an hour. but it falls just as quickly. Only one wooden footbridge, and that dating from the late 1930's, can be seen today - at Green Road ford.

All the others were replaced early last century, but by brick footbridges only except at Titterford. Four Arches Bridge, narrow and with a low parapet to permit packhorses to cross without catching their loads, was built and maintained by Yardley Great Trust. Bridges over millraces had to be repaired by the tenant millers. Paving of fords, after centuries of merely dumping more gravel into the potholes, was confined to the turnpikes; only this century have the local ones been concreted.