Photo competition winner to receive part of original Lendal Bridge (From York Press)

Photo competition winner to receive part of original Lendal Bridge

9:16am Wednesday 9th January 2013 in News By Richard Catton, richard.catton@thepress.co.uk

THE lucky winner of our photography competition to mark the 150th anniversary of Lendal Bridge is to be the proud owner of an original piece of ornamentation from the Victorian structure.

Engineer Philip Crowder, who worked on a major restoration of the bridge in 2000, has donated an original iron plaque which was once part of the bridge, until it was replaced 13 years ago.

The ornate item has now been restored by Mr Crowder and donated to The Press.

Yesterday we announced the winner of the competition as James Gunn, for his night-time shot of the bridge.

As well as the cornice, which features the royal initials for Queen Victoria, VR, Mr Gunn will receive two family passes for the Ouse Boat and a £20 voucher for The Maltings pub.

Mr Crowder said: “I have repaired Lendal Bridge several times going back 35 years. We have strengthened it and repaired it. In 2000 we did a major repair.

“We took all the cornices off and it was then that we took this particular embellishment and replaced it with a newly cast one.”

As an original fixture of the bridge, time and weather had taken its toll on the ironwork and it had split into three pieces.

But it has now been fully restored by Mr Crowder.

Lendal Bridge was designed by Thomas Page, the architect who designed Westminster Bridge in London. The bridge over the Ouse is about one-seventh of the scale of its sister structure in London.