Heavy rain hampers bridge rebuild

Newbridge is the oldest bridge over the River Thames in Oxfordshire

Heavy rain has caused havoc with a project to refurbish one of Oxfordshire's oldest bridges.

Stonemason's working on the 800-year-old Newbridge, near Witney, have had their scaffolding washed away twice since they began work one month ago.

Cliff Adkins, from Minerva Stone Conservation, said they had to continue work using floating pontoons.

"We have had quite a bit of rain in the past few weeks and the scaffold just disappeared under the water," he said.

The bridge, which crosses the River Thames, is being built using some of the original stones which were retrieved from the river bed.

"The council sent divers down to retrieve those from the bottom of the riverbed and they were delivered to us on the back of a lorry," Mr Adkins said.

"We have been working to the patterns and shapes of the size of those and will use a few of them back in place along with the new ones.

"Some of them could have been down there 100 years."