Two bridges and a bench to remember

All three structures are dedicated to the memory of Douglas Hulme and his wife Kathleen, who left a lasting legacy to a place they cherished.

This stretch of the river always held great significance for Douglas and Kathleen. “They were childhood sweethearts,” says close friend and carer Cindy. “She was his world, and they were utterly devoted to one another. He was a real character and one of the most knowledgeable people I’ve ever met; he knew every road, river, lake and plant name you could mention. There was nobody else quite like him.”

Community Nurse Cindy, her husband John, and colleague Anna all befriended Douglas while caring for him. “We just gelled straight away and became really good friends.”

It was very difficult for Douglas when, sadly, Kathleen passed away during the COVID lockdown. “We were worried about him and thought he’d go into a downward spiral,” continues John. “But we’d go out for these long walks by the River Weaver, struggling to keep up with him at 80 years old while listening to everything he shared about nature, history and the engineering around us.”

Cindy believes Douglas found solace by the water, sitting by the riverbank with his thermos and sandwiches, watching the world go by. And we feel that’s why he decided to leave a generous gift in his Will to our charity. It’s certainly why we used it to restore two bridges that he and Kathleen enjoyed visiting.

Locally known as the ‘Newbridges’, despite being hundreds of years old, one swings open to allow boats to pass up and down the river. Along with the other bridge, it provides walkers, cyclists and drivers a lovely shortcut through local beauty spots between the towns.

Our charity’s project manager, Lisa Shaw, led a team that invested the Hulme’s generous legacy to strip back and repaint the steelwork, restore the swing mechanism and replace the once rickety and noisy xylophone of wooden planks with new hardwood and lightweight resin timbers. Now, both bridges have another 50 years of life ahead of them.

Lisa tells us, “It blows my mind to think that the people who loved these bridges so much helped to fund this massive transformation. As a local engineer, I think of them as my bridges, but now they very much belong to Douglas and Kathleen as well.”

Earlier this year, Cindy, John and Anna kindly joined us for the installation of a bench overlooking the bridge in memory of their friends.

“Douglas and Kathleen would be over the moon to know that their legacy lives on here,” they told us. “You couldn’t have picked a better spot. Douglas would have thoroughly enjoyed sitting on this bench and telling us all about the bridges’ history. This is what he wanted: for his money to be well spent, caring for the heritage of his hometown. He and Kathleen were such lovely people, and we all miss them terribly. It’s so nice to have somewhere to sit and remember them.”