AN HISTORIC canal bridge which bears the burden of age and vandalism is to be treated to a new lease of life thanks to a grant of almost £40,000.

The Heritage Lottery Fund has given Kendal Civic Society £39,420 to help revitalise Change Bridge at the top of Garden Road, Kendal, as well as make improvements to its access and boundary wall.

Civic society members are celebrating the news, having spent years trying to draw attention to the continuing deterioration of the Grade II listed bridge.

The funds for improving the condition of Change Bridge will also enhance British Waterways' ambitious restoration scheme on the Northern Reaches - the innavigable 14-mile stretch of canal between Tewitfield and Kendal.

Dr John Satchell, civic society chairman, said: "It is a substantial sum of money for a local civic society, and this is exciting for anyone interested in local history."

Change Bridge was constructed in 1819 when the Lancaster Canal was extended to Kendal, and is a unique feature in South Lakeland.

Purpose built, it boasts cobbled ramps on either side to enable horses to cross the canal and avoid going around barges moored in wharves just north of the bridge.

Dr Satchell explained that Kendal's industry was transformed by the waterway scheme as coal and iron-laden barges ventured into the town for the first time.

Previously, woollen mills had been driven by the River Kent, resulting in work drying up with the water in summer.

With more industry, workers poured in and Kendal's population rose from 2,000 to 8,000 in the early 1800s.

"This bridge made the canal system work, and is crucial to the industrial history of Kendal," stressed Dr Satchell, a keen local historian.

Change Bridge was last used for its original purpose in 1947 when the canal was filled in.

"Nothing has been done to it since then, except there are now trees growing in the fabric, it has frost damage and there are cracks and signs of movement in the masonry," Dr Satchell continued.

Civic society secretary Patricia Hovey added: "It will be lovely to see it restored.

The bridge is a link with so much of Kendal's past prosperity, and it would soon be getting to the point of being too late to be repaired - the money came just in time."