E-mail

And one from the Environment Agency:
Dear Matilda,

Thank you for your questions about fords.

I found some useful information on Wikipedia which you might find interesting -

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_(crossing)

Also, I talked to one of my colleages - Ian Norriss - who works in the Development and Flood Risk team for your area. He told me that although he is not an expert when it comes to fords, he does know a bit about them - here is what he said :

The obvious solution to the problems associated with a ford is a bridge! In the past fords may have been installed in favour of bridges as a they are a cheaper, easy to install option. I suspect that the main reason that remaining fords are not replaced is due to their novelty/historical value. In my experience they are good fun to drive through! The water becomes too high to cross due to the natural increase in river flows during and after wet periods. They generally only still exist on minor roads. One possible way of lowering water levels across a ford could be to lengthen the ford so that the water flows across a wider area.

That is all the information I was able to get for you on the subject, but I do hope it comes in useful.

Good luck with the rest of your project,

Kind regards