TWO clergymen have performed an unusual ceremony - the blessing of a bridge.
The Reverend Robert Sellers, Anglican Rector of Fountains, and the Reverend Stuart Ellis, Methodist Minister for the Kirkby Malzeard area, gave the new £370,000 bridge across Kex Beck at Kirkby Malzeard, near Ripon, their approval.
The original bridge was washed away in freak flooding nearly four years ago, sparking a campaign for a wider replacement.
Campaigners for the new bridge had to overcome opposition from English Heritage.
Mr Sellers said he had been called on to bless many things in his time as a clergyman, but never a bridge.
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