DAMAGE to a 200-year-old bridge in Oxfordshire is being highlighted as part of a national campaign to stop drivers blindly following satellite navigation directions.

The dashboard technology is diverting growing numbers of heavy lorries on to country roads and through villages not able to cope with such large vehicles, said the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings.

Earlier this year, a large crack appeared in the stone bridge over the River Ock at Charney Bassett, near Wantage, after truckers' sat-nav systems directed them through the village as the shortest route to their destinations.

Lorries have also damaged railings in the village around Ock Green, said the society, which said one of the worst incidents it had come across saw a 300-year-old cottage wrecked in Ashton-under-Lyne, near Manchester, when a lorry driver followed his sat-nav's directions down a narrow lane and hit the house while trying to get out.

In February, we highlighted the problem after Peter Davies, the clerk of Charney Bassett Parish Council, said lorries were causing chaos in the village and pounding the bridge.

He said: "I welcome this research. No-one in their right mind would come through Charney Bassett in a heavy lorry without sat-nav, because we're not on any main routes. A Polish chap driving a lorry said it was his sat-nav that led him here.

"This problem is something that needs to be out in the open, so something can be done about sat-nav causing damage and destruction to ancient buildings."

SPAB secretary Phillip Venning said: "Blind reliance on satellite navigation is fast becoming a serious issue for old buildings, as motorists are directed to use ancient lanes and narrow country roads that might have posed a problem for horse-drawn carriages.

"The result is thousands of pounds of damage to historic structures which have, until recently, stood the test of time."

Oxfordshire County Council is able to place a weight restriction on roads where traffic flow is causing structural damage or where there is a history of accidents resulting in injuries, but many sat-nav systems do not have this information, nor do they warn of other potential problems, such as low bridges over roads.