I love these old rules and laws that are still on the books.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Workers on London’s Millennium Bridge are hanging a bale of straw under the structure after triggering an ancient bylaw.

The large bale, which these days is lowered on climbing rope by workers in hi-vis jackets, is intended to alert river traffic of the reduced headroom.

Urgent repair and cleaning work means the bridge was closed on Saturday for three weeks, until 5 November.

“The bundle of straw is lowered by our contractor when they’re doing work under the bridge, in this case to install netting ahead of work to replace the separation layer between the aluminium bridge deck and the steel structure underneath.

“As a 900-year-old charity which maintains five Thames crossings and is London’s biggest independent charity funder, we’re proud of the part we’ve played in the history of London and our modern day role looking after some of the capital’s key transport infrastructure.”

It wobbled so much on its opening day in June 2000 it had to close until February 2002 while supportive struts were fitted.

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