A 150-YEAR-OLD bridge is set for an unexpected makeover – thanks to a good mix of ancient and modern.

Ebchester Old Bridge, which spans the River Derwent on the Northumberland-Durham border, will get a 21st Century upgrade thanks to the needs of that most modern phenomenon, the wind farm.

EDF Energy Renewables, who are behind the nearby Boundary Lane Wind Farm, needs an electricity supply cable of crossing the river and linking up with a substation at Consett, five miles away.

But faced with the expense of an underwater cable, EDF asked to lay the cable across the narrow, triple-arched, hump-backed listed monument of the past.

That did not initially impress Ebchester Village Trust, who feared the stone bridge, already leaking in parts, would be unable to withstand the new work.

Now EDF have come up with proposals, which will plug the leaks, carry out the necessary repairs – without costing the locals a penny!

Clarke Slater, secretary of the Village Trust, said: “The bridge will be conserved on the basis of what will be done by EDF, and we are delighted with that.

“The people in the village have varying views of wind farms, and not everybody is against them. But certainly in this case, for those against it, the cloud has a silver lining.

“The old bridge is leaking through, but now commonsense has prevailed and this is certainly a positive result as far as the bridge is concerned.”

Grade II-listed, and just 10ft wide, Ebchester Old Bridge stands on the site of a former Roman bridge on Dere Street. A new bridge was erected close by in 1973 to take the modern traffic, but the old bridge still stands in all its glory.

Ebchester Village Trust treasurer Geoff Marshall, a highways engineer, said: “We are very happy with the way the whole thing has panned out.

“We have made the applicant jump through a few hoops, but EDF have been extremely co-operative all the way.

“At first they were going to dig a trench across the bridge and potentially damage the parapet and the bridge structure.

“It could have led to more water coming through the bridge, but they have taken our concerns on board as well as those of Shotley Bridge Low Quarter parish council.

“We have actively negotiated a few improvements – firstly, they wanted to put the cable in where there’s a duct, which we didn’t know what it was for – but turns out to have protected a water pipe.

“That wasn’t doing anything now, so we all decided that could come out – and in so doing, the kerbstone was no longer required.

He added: “There were five joints which could all leak, but getting rid of the kerb gives you two joints rather than five.

“In addition, the surfacing was pretty rough, and there is a BT duct on the other side. But EDF are now happy to strip off all the surfacing on the bridge, going down an inch or two, and making sure that the BT trench is properly sealed with new bitumen coating.

“So we will finish up with a brand new surface parapet-to-parapet – all at EDF’s expense. And that is certainly a big plus for us.

“The expensive alternative for them was to go under the river, but now they are doing a lot of repairs while going over the bridge.”

The scheme goes before Northumberland County Council’s west area planning committee in Hexham on Wednesday for approval.

And Mr Marshall has now formally told the authority: “Ebchester Village Trust has no objection to the revised proposals.”