Clumber Park employees to cycle for historic bridge

In March last year, a burnt-out car and a trail of destruction was discovered on the Ornamental Bridge, a Grade II listed structure owned by the National Trust.

The repairs to the bridge will be met and covered by insurance and the rebuild will begin in May.

However, when the scaffolding is in place for the bridge repair work, the trust will be able to carry out restoration to other areas of the bridge – which they say is “essential work that not covered by insurance”.

Now, four park employees, Torri Crapper, Kate Stark, Sara Gacem and Claire Sarris, will be taking part in a 24-hour cycling challenge on Saturday 27 and Sunday April 28 to raise funds for the work.

Hoping to raise £20,000, £18,000 has currently been raised.

The team who did not have any real cycling experience before they started training will be relaying the race.

Torri said: “The morning I saw the bridge had been vandalised in such a way, it was completely heart-breaking.

“Over the years it has been standing, people have made their own memories here be it cycling over the bridge with family, or walking over, spending special precious moments here. In all of the sadness, the support for the park was just lovely. We want to do our bit to help raise funds to restore this beautiful feature.”

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