DRONE pilot Michael Peet capture these fabulous pictures of one of the least-known bridges over the river Wye in Herefordshire.

The Sellack Suspension Bridge crosses the river in an isolated spot about four miles north-west of Ross-on-Wye.

It was built in 1895 to link the parish churches of Kings Caple and Sellack.

There had been a ford and the site, and later a ferry (the former house of the ferryman still stands on the Kings Caple side).

The story goes that some boatmen could be awkward, and over the years sometimes refused to take local vicars across. One is reported to have frequently crossed the river on stilts!

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This awkwardness resulted in a public petition for a bridge to be built.

It was achieved largely thanks to the efforts (and expense) of Rev Augustin Ley (1877-1908).

Under the bridge is a stone built into the buttress with the inscription – To the honour of God and the lasting union of these parishes.

The bridge is said to be the finest example of a Louis Harper bridge still in use in the UK.

Louis Harper (1868-1940) was a civil engineer from the north-east of Scotland who designed a several suspension footbridges towards the end of the 19th century.

His father, John Harper, patented a mechanism for straining wire to make fences and, later, for the cables of bridges.

Louis set up his own firm in 1889, and his early bridges included suspension bridges at Aboyne, Aberdeenshire, and Shocklach in Cheshire, both built in 1871. Neither bridge exists today.