LUCY’S LIFTS – FUN COMPETITION
Happy Holidays! No School for the Summer. Lots to do like holidays to go on and friends to see.
We hope you have a wonderful time but if you are looking for something special to do we’d LOVE it if you could help up with Lucy’s Mill Bridge. If you are 12 or under, this is something for you!
If you live on the ‘Town’ side of Stratford, you may not know that Stratford has three bridges. There is Clopton Bridge which you’ve been over in a car and next to it is the Tramway Bridge that you’ve walked over to get to the Rec – to go and play on the grass by the river or maybe if you’ve had a trip to the Butterfly Farm, or to go on the river in a boat.
Further down the river is Lucy’s Mill Bridge. It’s named after Lucy, a lady who had a Mill built for her (where the tall flats are) and has been a place where people have crossed the river for a long long time (100s of years).
When Lucy’s Mill Bridge was built of wood, it did fall down (a few times). Go back about 100 years and they built a concrete bridge and this one has lasted, even when the river has flooded (see the picture).
Lots of people do use the bridge, but lots can’t.
You may have a younger brother or sister who gets pushed around in a wheelchair. They can’t walk a long way yet! Or ask your Mum or Dad about when you were little and you had your own pushchair. They will tell you that Lucy’s Mill Bridge’s steep steps are really hard to use.
Its the same for people who don’t walk as well as they used to. Most important though is that if you have friends who use a wheelchair, the only way they could get up and down the steps is to be carried.
That’s what the Friends of Lucy’s Mill Bridge are here to do – to change all this. The bridge does need a coat of paint. It also needs to be a bridge that everyone can use. That could be if ramps were added to each end of the bridge. There could be a bridge to replace this one, or a new bridge built close by. Or there is one other option which is where YOU can help!
Why not have a lift or a moving staircase – an escalator?
It could be bright and shiny, made of metal and glass (like you see in shopping centres) – remember we would need two, one of each end, and the shape of the steps is different on either side of the bridge.
Could a lift be hidden away inside something that looks like one of the trees along the riverbank, so that people go out onto the bridge along its branches?
Could there be statues of Lucy (and her friends) that hide the lift away. We don’t have pictures of Lucy but she lived a long time ago. If you search for picture of ladies from the 17th and 18th Centuries, you’d have a good idea?
Its really up to you! You can be very serious or really crazy! This is a bit of a competition in that there will be some prizes but every entry* will be displayed on our web site and many will be used at the exhibition we are going to hold, in Stratford, this Autumn. The best entries will be used in a presentation we will give to important people later on this year.
You can make your own drawings, paintings or models.
You can use the drawings HERE and HERE to sketch or paint over.
Or you can use them – or say a picture you take – and use computer software to create your plans and pictures.
You can put notes around the edge of your picture, explaining what things are and what they do.
There is a set of Rules HERE that you need to show your parents or guardians before you start but the main things you must do are:
1) Use an A4 piece of paper which is on its side – in landscape format – so that it is wider than it is tall OR take a photos (say of a model you make) which is a landscape
2) * We will show every entry we receive as long as a picture doesn’t have any details of who you are on the picture (they go on the back on your entry), and that your picture doesn’t use any logos of companies on it, or picture of famous people (anyone actually) that you find on the internet or cut out from a magazine.
3) You can only enter once and your entry can be up to 3 pictures (pages)
So its up to you!
Why not ask to go for walk to the bridge (if you haven’t been)? If you have a pet dog, you could take them down and take their picture for ‘1000 Paws’
The closing date is 30th October 2017.
To enter, you can either post your entry to
The Friends of Lucy’s Mill Bridge
The Town Hall
Sheep St,
Stratford-upon-Avon
CV37 6EF
(or you can post an entry by hand in the post box for the Friends inside the Foyer of the Town Hall)
Or you can send images (PDFs, JPEGs) of your entry to lucyslift@lucysmillbridge.co.uk