In 2022, Modece was awarded a competitive bid to secure over £1 million from the MEND program for the Food Museum in Stowmarket (formerly the Museum of East Anglian Life). Matching with further funding, such as the DCMS/Wolfson Museum and Galleries Improvement Fund which enabled the Fishing Lodge Footbridge, the grants allow the museum to undertake crucial infrastructure projects beyond its regular maintenance budget. Modece is developing and executing all projects tied to the allocated funding grant, focusing on developing, extending, and refurbishing several key buildings on the museum’s site.

A key component of this project was the replacement of the historic footbridge leading to the Fishing Lodge.

The Food Museum is based around Abbots Hall and its listed gardens, which include an ornamental canal with an early 18th-century fishing lodge on a small island. Due to the condition of the bridge, the island and lodge have been inaccessible to visitors since the museum took over the hall and gardens in the 1990s. Successful funding applications in 2023 created the opportunity to construct a replacement bridge.

The new bridge was required to link to an existing boardwalk to provide inclusive visitor access to the island in an elegant manner evoking the 18th century origins of the landscape without attempting to recreate or reimagine the original design. The existing dilapidated bridge probably dated from the mid 20th century and there are no records or descriptions of its predecessors.

The bridge’s conceptual design was provided by Jon Pattle, a trustee at the Food Museum, whilst Modece provided the technical realisation in collaboration with JP Chick structural engineers. We oversaw the bridge’s execution and procurement, leveraging our experience in heritage building restoration and conservation. The bridge was built in green oak by Stowe Builders, who brought expertise in carpentry and timberwork.

The proposal for the bridge is a single arched spanning between the perimeter boardwalk and the island which will allow rowing boats to pass beneath the bridge and keep the feet of the bridge above water level. The structure is derived from a design sketch by Leonardo da Vinci for a self-supporting bridge which can be simply constructed from relatively short timber sections, but here the basic design is elaborated with additional radial struts supporting the bridge deck and forming the balustrade frameworks.

Two mature lime trees on the canal bank frame the approach to the bridge and it was important to devise a foundation solution which safeguards the trees. A difference in level between the boardwalk and island is accommodated by a discrete bend in the bridge profile at the island end, ensuring accessibility to the lodge is provided for the widest range of museum visitors.

With several years of very limited access the island had become very overgrown, and maintenance of the Grade II Listed fishing lodge very difficult. The completed bridge has provided the opportunity to address these problems and ensure the continuing sustainability of the listed building and its landscape setting.

The result is a stunning footbridge which significantly improves the accessibility and experience at the museum for all visitors.