However, if the official view favoured its restoration, he suggested seeking Irish Army agreement to erect a Bailey bridge over the border at Aghalane.

BBC: British favoured closing Aghalane Bridge

In 1940 Donald Bailey of Britain's Royal Engineers used his Erector Set to design the portable Bailey Bridge, which spanned creeks and rivers and was hailed by Eisenhower as one of the three most important technological advancements of the war, along with radar and heavy bombers.

FORBES: Boy Toy

The areas include Bailey's Hard in Beaulieu, the Itchen River above Itchen Bridge, Hythe, Dodnor at Medina on the Isle of Wight and Lytchett Bay in Poole.

BBC: Men caught in Southampton harvesting 'poisonous' clams