Sir, – I am writing to correct some of the misinformation in your newspaper regarding the present problems with Barforth Bridge (D&S Nov 13 and 20).

John Graham, the owner of Piercebridge quarry, bought Barforth Hall in 1951 and quickly realised that in order to make his farm operate better a bridge was needed over the Tees which was only three fields away from Gainford.

Being an entrepreneur, he bought a Bailey bridge and transported it in parts using his own transport from Barrow in Furness. Work started in July 1952, the most difficult job being pile driving, with the only piece of equipment he hired, into the bed of the river down to 12ft. With Harold Hodgeson, a Gainford stonemason and John Joseph Hull, his labourer, plus a small band of farm hands the foundations were finished by December, 1952. He used his own sand and gravel, making two thousand five hundred blocks to complete three piers.

The steel bridge was erected on the Durham side, placed on wooden rollers and pushed towards the first pier and at the same time winched from the Barforth side. The bridge was 220ft long, 12½ft wide and 18ft above the Tees.

By April 1953, the bridge, including 600 yards of approach road across John Harrison’s field (Raby owned), was completed and was a real bonus to the Barforth and Gainford communities.

The project was approved by all the appropriate authorities, according to the papers at the time, but it seems that it was not placed on any deeds. This situation never posed a problem even when a pier collapsed in 2002 and traffic has constantly been driven over the bridge.

Today, with the probable siting of a football pitch on the field on the Gainford side of the bridge and with litigation a major factor, the ownership of the bridge has arisen with nobody claiming responsibility and Durham County Council condemning it, leaving the families on the Barfoth side in limbo with a 12-mile round trip to get to Gainford and back.

If the owners of Barforth, Raby Estates and Durham County Council, which incidently owns a perfectly good railway bridge a few hundred metres upstream, got together to thrash out a solution, then peace may be restored, the Teesdale Way could pass over one of the bridges and everybody would benefit.

Let’s hope a sensible solution prevails.

MIKE STOW Gainford, Darlington.