BUS driver Derek Trow was at the wheel of first vehicle to cross the new Eastham Bridge when it reopened.

He was taking a group of children from Lindridge School back home to Eastham.

Eleven months ago Derek was at the wheel of the bus as it approached the bridge just seconds before it collapsed into the River Teme.

As villagers celebrated the reopening of the bridge and the end of nearly a year of misery with a lengthy and inconvenient diversion, they were aware that, but for fortune, the collapse last May could have been a terrible tragedy.

But that was put to the back of the mind as people turned out in numbers to mark the reopening.

A bus operated by the Tenbury Transport Trust was the second vehicle to go over the new bridge with two passengers at different ends of the age scale on board.

Eight-week-old Caitlin Wise was on the bus with mum Kirsty Mebrius, as was Betty Powell, the oldest lady in Eastham.

Life is returning to normal with the Royal Mail and other services using the bridge again and a 10-mile diversion now a thing of the past.

Construction is still in progress and the scheme will be completely finished later this summer. However, works have now reached a stage where the bridge can be opened to traffic, under temporary signal control.

"We are delighted that Eastham Bridge is re-opening,” said Jon Fraser, highways manager with Worcestershire County Council.

“Everybody associated with the scheme has worked incredibly hard to get us to this position, and we are looking forward to the full completion of the project in the summer. I am sure the local community will welcome the reconnection of the village to the A443."

The Grade II listed Eastham Bridge, near Tenbury, collapsed into the River Teme on Tuesday, May 2016.

Work remaining on the project includes the fixing of vehicle-restraint barriers to the parapet, the removal of temporary cofferdams from the river, and general site clearance and tidy-up.

The new Eastham Bridge in numbers:

The bridge is supported by 12 reinforced concrete-pile foundations that go down to a depth of 25 metres

Contractors reclaimed and cleaned 12,500 bricks from the old structure that will be used as cladding for the new bridge

The main span of the bridge consists of two pairs of braced steel beams, 33 metres long and weighing in at 84 tonnes, which would be the equivalent weight of 15 mature male African elephants

All the steel for the bridge has been produced in Britain; manufactured in Teesside, from 504 individually cut steel plates welded into 12 steel girders and 134 angle bracings

These were then fabricated in Port Talbot, South Wales by long-established family company Braithwaite Engineers Ltd. The company has been trading since the 1880s with staff on site to safely oversee the delivery ready for assembly