FERRY TICKET BEACHLEY- AUST SEVERN CROSSING

[malj1]

Not a token but interesting information from eBay that is worth keeping here.

FERRY TICKET BEACHLEY- AUST SEVERN CROSSING 4/- MOTOR CAR SINGLE 0 P S F CO LTD AD ON REVERSE FOR BEAUFORT HOTEL CHEPSTOW



The ferry service gained a new lease of life, however, with the growth of motor traffic, and a service was re-opened in 1926. Between 1931 and 1966, a ferry service was operated by Enoch Williams of the Old Passage Severn Ferry Company Ltd. Initially, this was only able to transport passengers with bicycles and motorbikes, but, by 1934, the Severn Queen was launched as a car ferry. It was able to carry just 17 cars. Each car had to turn sharply off the ramp onto the ferry, then be turned on a manually operated turntable before being parked. The process was reversed for unloading. The ferry timetable was notoriously affected by the huge tidal range on the Severn. It was unable to operate at low tide or at very high tides. The last ferry crossing occurred on 8 September 1966, the day before the first Severn Bridge opened.

[Kushi]

Less than a mile west of Aust, my Collins Road Atlas Britain shows a placename dot called Old Passage.

Smith and Smith, UK-England 992 FH, lists a steel 40 millimeter token OLD PASSAGE FERRY 12 with a picture of a steamferry. The reverse is blank. Catalogue of World Ferry, Ship, and Canal Transportation Tokens and Passes, Redondo Beach, California: 1981, page 170.

[bagerap]

I arrived in Chepstow, a decade after the ferry made it's last run, to run a pub. A fellow licensee, Ben Brown of the Five Alls, was the last skipper of the ferry.

He reckoned that the low tides were the most dangerous. That's when some of the locals would be out in improvised, coracle-like, boats to poach a few salmon. It's also where the Wye and Severn join and depending on rainfall further up the Wye, currents could be a nightmare.

[FosseWay]

The winds can be pretty harsh too, and generally come across you if you're going from one bank to the other rather than up the river. I've cycled over the bridge several times (the one opened in 1966 to replace the ferry) and it's pretty heavy going even in reasonable weather. And on the tides, the Bristol Channel is particularly extreme, having the second biggest tidal range in the world (around 10 metres isn't unusual IIRC). Here on the west coast of Sweden we have tiny tides by comparison, and even with them you notice the difference between springs and neaps when you get on and off ferries by the slope of the gangplank.

Great piece of transport history, though! Worth looking out for other high-profile ferries that have been superseded by bridges, such as Queensferry, Dundee and Humber.