AN artist has driven his work to new heights after building a paper bridge strong enough for a Range Rover to cross over.

Steve Messam pulled off the stunt using 54,390 pieces of paper as part of an event in China to mark 45 years of Range Rover production, at the weekend.

The 46-year-old, of Newbiggin, in Teesdale, spent more than two days creating the arch, which was built using paper from Kendal-based specialist James Cropper PLC, and watched nervously as the three tonne 2016 Range Rover Vogue drove across it.

And it’s not the first time Mr Messam, who only creates temporary art, has created a paper bridge as he designed a similar, albeit smaller one, in the Lake District earlier this year.

Mr Messam, who works from the UTASS studio, in Middleton-in-Teesdale, said: “I had started working on the idea about five years ago so that’s been a long process and to get this one in China we had about seven weeks to pull it together which is a whole different thing.”

He added: “I was a little bit worried but I knew it was going to work. However, because we had not done it before you cannot be 100 per cent.”