Norfolk villagers and National Trust at loggerheads over ‘fairy bridge’ that appeared in the night

The Shoebottom family on the ad-hoc bridge over Cabbage creek on the Stiffkey marshes. Photograph: Si Barber/The Observer

Once upon a time, there was a bridge. Some say it was built by fairies.

“It lasted about four or five weeks before the National Trust took it down in a dawn raid,” says Ian Curtis. “The police were informed. But, of course, the fairies were watching and they put another one up. A better one this time, which is much harder to take down.”