You have been warned

For many years in the 1970 - 1990's I held the office of Constable in our local Force and most of these years I worked out of Axminster Police Station from where we covered some 8 rural parishes bordering on Dorset and Somerset, and probably knew the location of most farms if not the farmers on our patch, and more importantly, who to ask if we didn't. Today I set off to find one of several bridges that bore this plaque. I had not been down many of the lanes since I retired in 1996 and I found many new houses had been built or an old cottage was now resplendent with conservatory and graveled drive.

This bridge was over the River Yarty next to a pub called the Longbridge Inn which is no longer the old cider house it once was but now a private house.

The statute under which this old law was made came into being around 1769 - 70 and we always joked that it was probably still in force. It is interesting to note that at that time the bridge was in to County of Dorset. Today, the nearest point from here to the Dorset border is about 12 Km (7 miles).