# Old Ferry Crossing to Wales



## neill (Jun 3, 2009)

This is the ferry terminal at Aust, Gloucestershire. It's hard to think that this way was main crossing to wales (without doing a 80 mile detour by road) before the first Severn Bridge was built. I went to take some pictures of the ferry boat 'Severn Princess' which was rusting and beached on the Welsh side, but it has been moved recently, if anyone knows where please let me know.






The view to the river today.But...





Bob Dylan Album Cover 'No Direction Home' taken in May 1966, you can just see the Severn Bridge in the backround during construction.





Foot passenger gate.





Up Close.





Remains of the tea shop.





The slipway (English Side)




As it was in 1965.









The slipway on the Welsh side





The reason it all closed in 1966.


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## Trinpaul (Jun 3, 2009)

Very interesting  even moreso since my stepfather has been playing Bob Dylan all week thus far


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## Foxylady (Jun 3, 2009)

Really interesting to see the various remains. Love the comparison shots...especially the Bob Dylan album cover. 
Nice work, neill. Welcome to DP, btw.


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## nutnut (Jun 3, 2009)

Welcome Neill, very nice report there, love the Bob Dylan comparison and the turnstile is awesome!

Well done, good work and thanks for sharing it with us


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## the-grotto (Jun 3, 2009)

Wow, I never knew this existed  oh and I do feel sorry for Trinpaul


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## Kingblag (Jun 3, 2009)

Great to see this and i often wondered how traffic used to great across before the bridge. The old one is starting to look a bit tatty though and i've even heard rumours that the M48 bridge will close when the tescos depot in chepstow moves to avonmouth!!. As i normally get a few hours to kill down that way on a saturday i'll go and have a look instead of sleeping in servern view services!


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## nursepayne (Jun 3, 2009)

Nice find, that old shot of Bob Dylan is the shiit.


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## swedish (Jun 3, 2009)

great find! never evan new this place exsisted... anyway nice report, hope to be seeing more soon an welcome to DP


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## smiffy (Jun 3, 2009)

Nice to see the other 'English' side ..here's the answer to your question of what happened to the old ferries..........
.......a post of mine from last year.
The Severn King got wrecked and subsequently recovered and dismantled whilst taking down the Severn railway Bridge, the Severn Queen was cut up in Bristol Docks approx 10/15 years ago and heres whats left of the last one of the little fleet ...The Severn Princess.........
http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=6281


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## Misstee (Jun 3, 2009)

A really interesting post - how many people must go over the bridge not knowing what's below. 

I just had a look at Smiffy's link to the Severn Princess report - made me quite sad


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## Richard Davies (Jun 3, 2009)

I remember spotting the remains of a slipway when crossing the Forth rail bridge. 

Before the bridge was built there was a train ferry, where the all coaches could loaded onto the ferry.

There was a similar service on the Tay near Dundee, & had to be brought back into service after the bridge collapsed.

I think there was a similar service on the Humber at one time.


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## smiffy (Jun 4, 2009)

After a bit of digging about on the Web I found this.....
..This is/was the biggest ferry in the fleet......... 'The Severn King'..........
He was fitted with an old crawler crane to use in the demolition of the Severn Railway Bridge (thats the remains of it in the background) but one night the moorings apparently broke and the 'King ran onto the stumps of one of the bridge piers severley damaging himself below the water line..
..the hulk was recovered and beached to where this photo shows him but apparently the damage was too great too bother with attempting a repair job .....as far as I am aware he was broken up where he lay and the remains of the Kings keel is still on the bank to this day...........

PS: Somewhere on the Web I have seen a great photo of The King humped up on the bridge pier the morning after he broke loose......... but I can't find one at the moment ...........Sorry !


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## Bob Shepherd (Aug 21, 2009)

*Severn Princess*

See other thread re the faltering, but still possible restoration of one of the ferries. It's in a hell of a state and currently beached under the Brunel rail bridge in Chepstow. 

Take courage me hearties! ( That's spurious seafarin' talk) - the railway preservation people have done wonders with worse cases than this.


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