IT will not be quite as momentous as an invasion but the bells will ring in a village near Tenbury later today (Thursday, April 27).

The joyful noise will mark the reopening of Eastham Bridge almost a year after it collapsed into the River Teme.

Celia Adams, who farms on both sides of the bridge, says that its reopening is a huge relief to the community who have had to put up with great and costly inconvenience for nearly a year.

“Life has been amazingly inconvenient for numerous people over the last 11 months with 10-mile detours to get to the same spot 40 yards across the river and another 10 miles to get back again,” she said.

“There has been no chance of anyone living south of the river catching buses to Worcester or Tenbury as the links were totally severed.

“Fortunately the Tenbury Transport Trust bus continued to take a detour into the village each week.

“The thoroughfare was a major artery between the villages north and south of the River Teme – the reason why, of course, the residents of the late 18th century forged ahead and built themselves a toll bridge."

She said it is not just people living in Eastham who have been affected by the bridge closure.

“For the last 11 months many locals have been affected from Eastham, Rochford, the Hanleys and beyond and also residents on the north side of the river from Newnham Bridge, Knighton, Lindridge etc, many travelling around the narrow lanes to carry on their daily lives,” added Celia Adams.

“The list of people affected is never ending, several farmers with ground either side of the bridge, folk going to work in Worcester, Droitwich, Kidderminster, Bewdley and further afield, children going to and from school at Lindridge and children travelling to schools further afield.

“Also local tradespeople, milkmen, especially Phil Gray, cleaners, carers, postmen, courier drivers, grocery delivery vans, lorry drivers and all the people from out of the area who dutifully followed their satnavs only to find a dead end .

“Fortunately, all the ambulances that needed to get in and out of the villages have managed it one way and another sometimes via extended routes.

"Regrettably our Grade I listed Eastham Church has seen just three visitors signing the visitors book this year.”

Although the bridge is not completely finished it is now able to take traffic and is set to reopen at 3.30pm. An official ribbon cutting will take place when all of the work is finished in the summer.

The first vehicle to pass over the bridge from the A443 will be the school bus bringing the children home from Lindridge School bringing to an end a year of misery for families.

Children from the school were approaching the bridge when it suddenly collapsed on a quiet afternoon last May. Fortunately, no one was injured when the old bridge fell into the River Teme.

Tenbury Community Bus with Eastham’s youngest and oldest residents on board will be the second bus. Baby Caitlin Wyse who is just eight weeks old is scheduled to be a passenger.

The community bus will return to drop and ferry others over the bridge until around 4pm.

In future, Eastham Bridge will be controlled by three-way traffic lights with priority given to vehicles coming from the A443.

An investigation into the collapse of the bridge put the blame on the impact of erosion by the flow of the River Teme.

Worcestershire County Council has always maintained that the bridge had been inspected in line with what is required and that it was examined in December 2015 just five months before the collapse.