Bedford footbridge to be blessed with Storm Eunice cross

A new footbridge in Bedford will be blessed this weekend with a cross specially made from a tree damaged during Storm Eunice.

It will be at the footbridge at Riverside North on Sunday (March 20) at 11.20am.

The ceremony is being adapted from an ancient practice dating back to at least the 8th century.

During the blessing, the cross - specially made by Fr Luke Larner - will be dropped into the water by Canon Kevin Goss, vicar of St Paul's.

Fr Larner, a former builder and assistant curate at St Paul’s, said: "This ‘windfall cross’ will be a symbol of the destructive power of natural forces and the promise of new life which comes with spring and Easter, the high point of the Christian calendar."