Medieval Bridges preserved with sugar

Scientists have used 70 tons of liquid sugar to preserve the remains of three Medieval bridges found near Leicester.

Experts from the University of Leicester immersed the 11th century bridges – whose ruins were so heavy they had to be carried in sections by eight-man teams – in tanks of sugar solution.

The bridge sections are thought to have been part of The King's Highway, a major national route linking London and the South with Derby and the North. They have gone on show at local science hub the Snibston Discovery Museum, where they had been kept in drying chambers for three years in the final part of the project.

"The carpentry and architecture of the 11th century bridge represents a crucial moment in British building history,” said Site Director Susan Ripper. “It combines the earth-based building technology of Anglo-Saxon England with the timber-frame technology which became commonplace a century later."