The ford for the drowning car in England was closed. End of funny videos?

This is perhaps one of the oldest fords in the world. He is more than 1000 years old. But here it is closed.

It is located in the town of Rufford Ford in Nottinghamshire (England). In rainy weather, not all cars can cross the ford, but many do try. As a result, a water hammer occurs, followed by rescue and expensive car repairs.

Videos of desperate drivers trying to cross the ford regularly appear on social networks, and now the authorities have paid attention to this problem. The decision was traditional – the city council banned passage through the ford after a call from firefighters and police.

The ford is part of an ordinary asphalt road. In dry weather, this is just a shallow puddle, which is not dangerous for cars. But when it rains, the water spills and the depth of the ford reaches more than half a meter.

In 2020, local resident Ben Gregory began posting videos of cars sinking into the ford on the internet. And the videos went viral – people happily guessed which car could overcome the ford and which would stay in the water and “catch a water hammer.” Even crossovers and SUVs sank, and some cars trying to fly through the ford along the way had their bumpers torn off.

Over time, after the rain, spectators began to gather at the ford, which became more and more. Ford has become a tourist attraction and in one of the videos you can even hear Russian speech.

Now the ford is closed and no new videos coming up. It is known that the authorities are not going to build a bridge in this place (there are no economic justifications for this). But they are exploring other ways to cross the river safely.

Meanwhile, Gregory, who has garnered nearly 17 million likes on his TikTok videos and 65 million views on YouTube, has turned his attention to a few other fords about an hour’s drive from Rufford Ford in Leicestershire.