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What happened to the bridge?
Just before Wath upon Dearne lies the result of flood waters and even this is crossing is too much for the mountain bike to attempt. It's time to improvise.
The "Great Flood of 2007" started on Monday June 25, and in East Yorkshire and South Yorkshire the entire average for June came down in an hour. There was a lot of it, and it went on and on. Water overwhelmed drains and on the second day the banks on the Don, Hull and Severn Rivers, all along the cycle route, were unable to hold the water. The first dramatic consequences, on June 25, came in Sheffield, a city with five rivers but no reputation for floods. As usual the problem, locals thought, would be further down the River Don and up in York, a city so used to water that the dated high-watermark posts are a tourist attraction. But Sheffielders watched as the sheer volume of rainfall and run-off from the city's seven hills turned central streets into rivers gushing at frightening speed. The clear-up operation in the towns and cities was the biggest in Britain since the collapse of East Anglia's coastal defences in 1953.
After the bridge there were more stories of the floods. Football field goal posts under water. First hand accounts from local people.
