A FARMER and his herd of cows will now be able to go where ‘udders’ cannot follow after a £200,00 bridge was installed just for them.

Engineers lifted a new £200,000 British Waterways bridge into place giving a farmer and his animals access to the other side of the Oxford Canal for the first time in two years.

The new three-metre bridge, near Aynho Wharf, Aynho, between Bicester and Banbury, replaces a wooden bridge that was struck by a boat in 2008 and deemed unsafe to use.

Since then the farmer and his cows have had to go the long way around – walking to another bridge – to get to his fields on the opposite side of the canal.

The cost of the project was picked up by British Waterways, who defended the move saying it was part and parcel of maintaining the country’s canals and rivers.

Spokesman Sarah Rudy said: “£200,000 does seem like a lot of money but this just reflects the true cost of maintaining and restoring heritage structures along a 200-year-old canal.

“We invest all our income back into maintaining our canal and rivers and lift bridges on the canal are one the well known features of the canal which we want to be able to maintain and restore for future generations.

“This particular bridge is a Grade II listed structure and we do have a duty to re instate access for the farmer to his fields.”

It took almost a day to lift 2.5 tonne Belchers Bridge back into place.

Because of the location of the bridge, its 40 pieces had to be assembled on site.

The bridge was lifted by crane over the canal and engineers bolted it into place.

British Waterways’ engineer Howard Wilcox said: “Lift bridges on the Oxford Canal are an extremely popular feature so it’s great that we were finally able to reinstate this listed bridge. The bridge, which provides an access route for the local farmer to land either side of the canal, was completely removed as the timbers had become rotten and was dangerous to use.

“This new bridge is of a similar design to the old structure and is made from FSC Oak hardwood which should last for at least another 25 years.”

The British Waterways project started in 2009 when the brick foundations were repaired and rebuilt using traditional Lime mortar techniques.

Staff also rebuilt the actual Grade II listed wooden bridge using the existing steel work and new timbers. The Oxford Canal, looked after by British Waterways, stretches a distance of 77 miles between the centre of Oxford to the outskirts of Coventry.

The farmer declined to comment.