Text 1: Bellcombe counts the cost of bridge closure, by Aled Mercer

An original contemporary newspaper report.

Businesses in Bellcombe are changing working hours and delivery routes after an inspection found a fractured joint beneath the town’s road bridge. The bridge, which links the eastern and western banks of the river, has been closed to vehicles and pedestrians while repairs are carried out.

For bakery owner Nia Patel, a three-mile delivery round has become a nineteen-mile journey using the next bridge upstream. Her van now leaves at 4.30 a.m. instead of 6 a.m., and the longer route costs the business an additional £40 in fuel each week. She has also given up two hotel delivery contracts because the van can no longer return in time for its second round.

A council-funded passenger launch now crosses the river between 6.15 a.m. and 8 p.m. The Bellcombe packaging works has altered its shifts so that employees can use it. However, the launch cannot carry delivery vehicles and did not operate on three windy mornings during its first fortnight. Nine factory employees missed the beginning of their shifts on one of those mornings.

‘The boat keeps most people moving,’ said factory manager Huw Ellis, ‘but every business that depends on a van or lorry is still taking the long way round.’

Text 2: The river between us, by Eliza Ward

An original letter written in a nineteenth-century voice; a period simulation, not an archival document.

Text 2 is a letter written in 1872 by a resident of a village near a slate quarry.

My dear Anne,

The flood has carried away the wooden bridge, so the road to the quarry is lost to us. The longer road by the ford adds two hours to the men’s journey, and after heavy rain even that way cannot be used. Several arrived late last week and had the missing time taken from their wages.

Six quarrymen now share a room close to their work from Monday until Saturday. This saves them the daily walk, but the rent consumes part of their pay and their families see nothing of them all week.

Mr Price has begun taking passengers across the river in his small boat. It is useful in calm weather, although it has no room for carts. Mrs Bowen therefore cannot take her butter to the market as she did before. She sells it to the village inn instead, but receives a lower price.

We hear that a new bridge may be built, though no work has yet begun.

Your affectionate cousin,

Eliza

Using information from both texts, explain briefly how the bridges becoming unusable affected people’s working lives and why the solutions caused further problems.

You should make it clear which text you are referring to.