Crossing the Worlds Most Dangerous Estuary - A brief History
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
- Welcome to this weeks video in which we walk up and down the Severn Estuary looking for some of the crazy ways in which people have tried to ross it for 1000's of years,
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I worked on the construction based on the Welsh side. When working in the tidal zone there would be a bell to make sure you got back to land before the tide came in. Sometimes we couldn't get the plant back because of the mud and on a couple of occasions we had to leave 40 ton concrete pumps. Going back when the tide was out they had disappeared only to show up a couple of days later, brought back by the tides, smashed to hell. That was one hell of a scary tide. There was a natural spring there, I think the local Whitbread brewery used it as a water source and a job I had was to wade through chest deep silt and mud to the spring and take a sample to ensure the works weren't polluting it. That was so strenuous especially with all the safety kit and harnesses I had to carry.
I worked on English side I was out in river in my moxy for jone’sdid all the muck shift on land as well
An excellent and interesting production as always. I have lived within less than a mile of the M48 Bridge for more than 40 years and it is certainly an impressive area, particularly when the tide is coming in.
That was excellent stuff - I’m impressed how you crammed so much information into 12 minutes!
I also feel old - is the second road crossing really 25 years old? 😆🤦♂️😩
Oddly as I was editing I was concerned it was going to be 30 mins!
loved your informative video. Born in Cardiff I had been by train through the tunnel to London and driven by car Over the bridge This would have been in the mid 60's or so.
I remember travelling over the first crossing when it opened in the back of my dads Vauxhall Victor, in later life I would commute from Cardiff to Bristol on my motorbike a test of skill when it was windy lol.
Thank you for making this, these bridges have made a big difference to my life👍
I never knew there had been a rail bridge before the car bridges!! I’ve been crossing the Severn on the bridges for over 50 years…
Great piece of work.
Excellent
cracking vid, thank you
Glad Rebecca popped up at the end!! Sorry Paul but she is much easier on the eye !!
I remember that passing the Severn bridge cost a fee. I do not know when that changed.
Dec 2018
@@pwhitewick Thank you. I was decades ago when I was there last time and it was not a symbolic amount either. This bridge has paid back its price multiple times.
If anyone is interested, one of my college lecturers wrote a book on one of the ferry crossings 'The ferry:Newnham and Arlingham by Margaret H. Willis. Both she and her husband, Brian, are buried at Newnham cemetery.
That would explain the name of the pub at Arlingham; The Old Passage Inn 😊
Lot of work put into this and some great drone footage. The old railway bridge was a problem due to its weight restriction in later years. It was a challenge whether to upgrade it or demolished it. The barges settled it once and for all. Sad that it was such a tragic accident. Keep it going.
Thanks Bob
Wow! Paul, Rebecca, Possibly your best yet! This is a standard of documentary I would expect to see on the BBC, not RUclips! Your research is meticulous, the execution to the finished product nothing short of excellent! Careful, if you top this, I'll have run out of superlatives!
Many RUclipsrs make far better documentaries than the large TV-crews!
One of your best Paul & Rebecca. Definitely worth the considerable effort you put into it.
I can echo your comment. Well worth a watch. 👍
In the early 1960s the engineering society at school arranged a trip on British Railways Western Region's Chief Civil Engineer's observation carriage from Reading to Severn Tunnel Junction and then up the branch line to the Sudbrook pumping station. We saw the old Cornish engine pumps and we took a lift down into the tunnel itself (through heavy wooden door) while a train went past. I'm sure this would never be allowed today. After visiting the tunnel we visited the site of the Severn road bridge (the suspension bridge that's now part of the M48). We went up on the bridge deck (which wasn't yet complete) and then down into the vast concrete blocks that anchor the cable. A great trip, but I'm sure elf'n'safety would never allow a gang of teenage schoolboys to do these kinds of things now. Thanks for the video!
Wow, what a great story. So lucky👍👍
you'd have to pay someone insurance money to allow it.
No offense, but my brain's gonna be singing Sunshine on Leith for the rest of the day, now. Really cool experience you were lucky to have!
Great piece of research, even as a local (Bristolian) I learnt a lot. Severn Beach used to be quite a seaside resort, popular with Bristolians as it was cheaper to get to than Weston! There were also regular excursion trains from the Midlands.
Yup, despite me mentioning facilities there actually wasn't as much as I was lead to believe.
I'd like to echo the sentiments already expressed by other appreciative viewers and congratulate you on a cracking mini documentary. Kudos! Definitely two months well spent.
I'm always amused when the name 'Aust' comes up - when I was a kid, I went with my family on holiday to Wales. My late father never believed in 'Straight Line' travelling, preferring to wander about, stopping off anywhere he found interesting. Anyway, we stopped off at Aust services, and ordered some cold drinks. I had a cup of Fanta, which the lady serving, filled very full, and suggested taking a mouthful off the top. I should point out, at this point, the cafeteria was packed with people. The Fanta was extremely fizzy, and cold, and I took a big gulp. The result of this was an immediate, and incredibly loud burp, which echoed round the big room, which fell silent. I remember mum wishing the floor would swallow her up, and dad laughing fit to burst. I've not visited since.
Great video about a fascinating place. Thank you.
Great story. I can just imagine your mum mortified and dad laughing his head off.
Gone down in legend as, " The Great Burp of Aust".
I thought you were gonna talk about the fossils or geology, but no..
That made me chuckle
Definitely worth the two months prep. Excellent!
I wanted to shout out ‘Orst’ a few times but by your last mention you must have heard already.
I was searching for a Yocal to try and confirm.... it was deserted!
It was always 'Orst' to me as a kid, but I wasn't local either.
I remember as a school child in around 1965 going on a school trip from Bristol to Aust to see the ‘new’ bridge being constructed. Best bit was collecting fossilised sharks teeth on the beach where you were standing at 11:00. Black pointy teeth embedded in limestone that could be removed with acid!
Is Rebecca allergic to Wales?
Fish yes but not dolphins or wales
I went across the ferry with my motorbike in the early 60's when they were just building the bridge . The ferries had a turntable on board so that the cars could be turned around for loading . I cant remember how much it cost !.
Thank you. When I was a kid in the early '60's my family would cross on the Aust ferry. I remember the queues. One of Bob Dylan's album covers is a photo of him at Aust, during a tour of Britain, as he waited for the ferry.
I remember crossing on the ferry in 1963 or 4. Although it was summertime, the crossing was diabolical. The cars were chained to stop them sliding but they did anyway; the ferry was buffeted about by a gale, the sky was dark grey, rain was lashing down and we passengers huddled in groups. Kids were crying and some women were moaning and screaming quietly whilst the cars were 'reaching the end of their tether'.
We finally made it across like refugees from Armageddon and all swore blind that was the last time. And it was. For us. 😁😁😁
@@janicetaylor7516 Lovely. Certainly makes driving across on the bridge somewhat underwhelming, though.
@@andrewpreston4127 ...it was lovely although I was only 14 or 15 and thought it was great. I'd prefer the bridge now, though. 😄
Thems some lovely bridges. Enjoyed a lot, thanks!
And of course the current M48 bridge was originaly the M4 bridge, renamed M48 when the new bridge was built for the M4.
That was one of your very best videos. Wonderful historical interest. Full of facts and information. Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into making this film.
Really loved this. The Severn crossing (esp the M48 one) holds so many great feelings for me. Coming home to Cymru, lots of history so well put together in a 12 minute video. Can see the high level of work you put in. Thank you!
Same, travelled across it so many times
Excellent content, very good editing, first class production you two - well done.
My Great Uncle Ted, Edward Cope of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, swam across the nearby River Severn and returned despite all the conflicting currents. My father, in the 1960s, spoke to an elderly local man near the Severn who remembered the accomplishment. I met Uncle Ted in the 1950s when he returned from France where he had settled immediately after fighting in WW1. He was short, wore a beret and was noticeably broad shouldered and spoke English as a Frenchman ; he had forgotten some English words. He was my father's mother's brother and had been a noted Water Polo athlete.
Really interesting, many thanks. Aren't both sides the "mainland of the UK" i.e. Britain? Oh and Aust is pronounced "Ost".
Wonderful production and infectious enthusiasm...easily one of the top offerings on yt...thank you.
You missed out the crossing of the Severn to "Cornwall" by Twrch Troeth, which drowned two of King Arthur's soldiers in tve Severn. Some say the boar swam from Pig Hole to Aust. Two of Arthur's men drowned trying to stop it. See "How Cilhwch Won Olwen" in the Mabinogi.
The estuary has been fished by specialist techniques and was regularly crossed by trows between Lydney, Chepstow and the Usk and Wye docks on the one side, and Bristol on the other. Trows are boats designed for the estuary, the Wye, the Severn and the two Avon rivers (smaller trows were used on The Fleet behind Chesil Beach).
Interesting! Had it not been struck by barges, the rail bridge might still be there today! I'm always impressed by the bridge and tunnel projects accomplished or attempted before modern engineering and building methods were available.
Often wondered that. Would it have survived?
@@pwhitewick survived yes more than likely as it it did have a gas main running over it. Would it still be being used by the railways probably not.
The trouble is, it was a very high maintenance bridge (lots of steel and lots of salt in the air), and being on a single track branch line it unfortunately wasn’t particularly useful with regard to it’s role in the main rail network. With main line double track rail crossings just a few miles further north and a few miles further south, it was a bit of a white elephant. It never carried significant traffic and couldn’t compete with those alternative routes. I recon it would have gone under Beaching or the 1970 closures. Impressive structure though!
@@malcolmsmith6615 what about for freight or was it too far off the lines and not much if any freight use in the area?
@@bostonrailfan2427 There was local (short distance) goods, that that sort of traffic was all but gone in the UK by the 70s. There were (still are) double track main lines forming a tall triangle between South Wales, Bristol and Gloucester, and to have a single line that linked two sides of the triangle didn’t achieve anything. It would have been useful when first built, but the coming of the Severn Tunnel (the Bristol-South Wales leg of the triangle) took away all the advantages.
West of Bristol is Shirehampton there was a Roman port on the river Avon there. There would have been another over by Caerleon. I used to go to Severn beach as a child (now 68), there was a Sandy beach then and rock pools for crabbing.
I did read somewhere that spans from the Severn railway bridge where exported abroad for reuse
Heard that too. Possibly to South America.
They most likely were. The better spans from the 1878 Tay Bridge were re-used in the 1887 replacement bridge...
i would be interested in a video of a similar estuary crossing; the railway across the Solway Firth from Cumbria to Scotland.
Hi Paul, what a wonderful video and definitely worth the two months work of prep which into making it. Thank you very much.
Absolutely fascinating. Living in Bristol, I just take accessing South Wales by road and rail for granted.I must admit I forgot about the attempt to cross the Severn in the Forest of Dean area until it was mentioned in the video, but I had heard the story of its fate before.Many thanks.
I grew up near Severn Beach and it used to be a holiday resort and was a great place to grow ip
Great vid Paul ..one of your best to date mate ... why on earth a dozen sad stalkers didnt like this is beyond me ..maybe they are just plain jealous of you getting out there and doing such a good informative vid ?? Enjoyed ..Cheers.
The Romans liked to get their feet wet in fords? Eh, I've had the floor pans rust out on chevys too. 😂
Daaaaad!
I can't take the dad jokes... I'm off for a fiesta.
@@pwhitewick errrr Siesta Paul!!!!?? Well deserved I m sure 😄
You'd have thought Romans would prefer Fiats to Fords
Ba boom tish
Interesting fun fact (possibly), used to work with a chap whose surname was Aust (which he said meant ferry man) and could directly link his family to the village of Aust
I think the Romans usually crossed from the North Somerset coast to Wales Carleon, less speedy turbulent waters.
So this place has the second highest tide change in the world? What place has the highest tide changes in the world? Is it always the same place, or does that change now and then depending on whatever stuff is happening in weather patterns, current flows, etc..Do all these places have sirens to warn people that it is changing soon, and fast?
I generally enjoy your videos, but this was one of the best. Excellent stuff!
Hi both, great video, thank you. I’m local and can remember travelling on the ferry under the first Severn bridge whilst it was under construction. It was an amazing sight, men hundreds of feet above the water on mesh catwalks stringing the cables, no hard hats hi viz jackets or safety lines, different times. On the day the bridge opened we were given a day off school (Olveston Primary) and bussed to the bridge to watch, cheer the Queen and wave our Union Jacks. We sat on the grassy banks of the motorway cutting adjacent to the toll booths, all grown over with trees now.
One crossing you missed out. Electricity.
The pylons that carry the high voltage (275kV) cables across the river adjacent to the first bridge were built in 1959 and were the highest in the U.K. until the ones across the Thames were built. There are also tunnels which run under the old bridge which carry high voltage cables.
Best
TonyS
Back in the days when the fuel tankers came up the River Severn they came as far as Worcester and Stourport-on-Severn. There were tank farms with storage for Shell Mex/BP, Esso and National. The tanks have since disappeared in Worcester and the industrial area is now modern housing.
As a child growing up in Stourport on Severn I used to watch the barges from Redstone caves.
Was good that, you often don't realise the history of these places.
I have seen photos of a car carrying train that crossed the Severn via the tunnel. As far as I remember your car was driven onto a flat wagon.
Fascinating quality content about a part of the world close to where I come from. Thank you for making it - great videography, and editing and I appreciate the history and maps very much. Well done! All the best, Rob in Switzerland
Thanks Rob
Really great little documentary of the area, thanks for making and sharing
Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia - you're welcome.
1st one I’ve seen. Liked Subscribed! You should come to Crowhurst in Sussex. I went to King Offa school, we’re covered in 1066 turf
Welcome.... you've now got 196 videos to catch up on... 🤪
Subbed up found that interesting please can I ask for the what3words pin to the old tower of the swing bring would love to photograph it
👍👍.... treetop tuned sniff
@@pwhitewick thank you nice one i was miles away looking on google haha
"doobly-doo" for the dictionary! I think this is the third channel I'm subscribed to that uses that term...
I think we nicked it off Vlog Brothers.
So much I didn't know (or have forgotten). This one video alone, of your many, will inspire many hours of further reading. Thank You both for the hard work.
Thanks mutely Dave
Superb mini documentary! I know the area but still learned a lot of new stuff. Thank you.
What a fantastic video. Very much enjoyed.
I believe it's near to where Richie Edwards from the Manic Street Preachers went missing somepoint back in the mid-90s, presumed dead in 2008, and still remains unverified what happened to him.
Has he not spoken about it
Lovely video Paul. I'm a local lad to the area growing up in Thornbury. I was taught a little of the history in this area through school but only later on in life did I truly understand that the hole area is engulf with vast history. Awesome video and keep them coming guys you two do a fantastic job. Dare I say a lot better than the history teacher I had in school... But hey haha! Keep it up, hopefully if you guys are in Thornbury or by the Severn again it would be lovely to meet you both!
Thank you very much. Very informative.
Living locally, just like to point out it’s not Oust by Aust as in Australia. When I was a child the ferry was still travelling from Aust to Beachley
There’s a famous image of Bob Dylan waiting to cross from Aust
Check out my twitter social media.... I tried to replicate that shot
I remember them building this bridge. Living on the welsh side I couldn’t wait to get in my car and drive across. Now I can see it from my window on the Bristol side.
A brilliant well researched video, Paul and Rebecca.
The old Severn Railway Bridge was used in an old Arthur Askey film called the Ghost Train.
Great video (and great SNES T-shirt)!
Really fascinating documentary. You told the story in a really engaging fashion, with great footage, elegant editing and perfect atmospheric music. Something this channel should be really proud of!
As a young boy I traveled on the footplate of a GWR steam loco crossing the Severn bridge from Lydney to Sharpness. Placed up in the cab by my grandmother at Lydney who then accompanied in a coach my grandfather Andrew Jackson the driver placed me on the right of the cab on a small seat backed by the tender and explained what he was doing. It was hot and dusty. My memory of crossing the bridge was the view, that it flexed with the forward momentum of train weight, also took a time to cross a lot of Severn water. He also told me during the war the Americans did not believe a bridge span could take the weight of a 'Lend Lease locomotives', one was driven onto a span and left there overnight, British engineering triumphed. They home was on Aylburton common at 'Fair View'. This was the first of several thrilling cab rides I've continued here in NZ.
That’s amazing.
Catching up on your Severn videos, this was great. Always admired the M48 crossing.
Many thanks!
Brilliant video! I wonder if they'll ever be a 3rd of should I say 4th bridge over the Severn Estuary.
Brilliantly researched, filmed and edited - there must have been a huge amount of work in producing this excellent video.
Brilliant production on this one, good job, both.
I subscribed inside the first minute , with no regrets.
Good story. You forgot that into I think the 1960s you could take your car on the train several times a day between Severn Tunnel Junction and Pilning, almost parallel to the new passage.
Great film, but just one point. Aust is not pronounced like "oust" with an "ow" sound. It is an "aw" sound as in ought or caught. Perhaps they should have spelled it awst 🤔
He can't help it - he is a northerner! ruclips.net/video/PT0ay9u1gg4/видео.html
As in Austria and Australia ...
Indeed it was brilliant, some interesting ways that people have tried to cross the Severn, I'm sure the same way happened when they were crossing the Forth in Scotland with the train got to Dalmeny they had to get off the train, cross the Forth and join the train at Burntisland before the Forth Rail Bridge was built.
I was just about to point that out. I'll just add that same thing happened at Ferry-Port-on-Craig which became Tayport. So a train from Edinburgh to Aberdeen involved TWO ferries.
The "Forth Bridge", not the "Forth Rail Bridge".
And much similar with the Tay crossing.
Nobody ever got off at Dalmeny to cross the Forth! From Edinburgh (Canonmills from 1842 and Canal Street from 1844 to 1867 and thereafter Waverley; they caught a train to (Newhaven until 1846, where they walked down to the Chain Pier - which was forever being damaged by winter storms) and then Granton Habour Station, where a permanent train ferry to and from Burntisland used the the adjacent slipway; from which station train services ran north to Perth and Dundee - the latter being across a further ferry between Ferry-Port-on-Craig (Tayport) and Broughty Ferry, (The railway lines from Saughton and Winchburgh to Dalmeny Junctions didn't open until the Forth Bridge also did in 1890 - likewise the line off the bridge through North Queensferry tunnels as far as Inverkeithing station and onto Burntisland). Dunfermline traffic could also run from Edinburgh to Ratho Station and thence to South Queensferry on a branch line that served an earlier Dalmeny station; and transfer to a ferry across to the Railway Pier at North Queensferry, to and from which a single line branch burrowed into a tunnel under what is now the northern approaches to the Forth Road Bridge and Queensferry Crossing, before joining what later became the Rosyth Dockyard line, and thence to Inverkeithing and Dunfermline Upper Station, via the Touch Junctions to the East of that town. (The direct line between Cowdenbeath and Perth, and specifically the cut-off between Foulford Junction and Kelty South Junctions and also, Mawcarse to Bridge of Earn Junction (through Glenfarg Tunnels) also did not exist before 1890). The earlier Dunfermline & Queenferry Railway from Inverkeithing South Junctions to Touch Junctions and also the Kinross-shire Railway from Luimphinnans West Junction to Mawcarse Junction, were also doubled and upgraded, as part of the Forth Bridge Undertaking. All were operated by the North British Railway from the outset.
@@paulharvey9149 South Queensferry Line, that was the line I was thinking off when I was typing my comment thinking they would had used that to get the passengers across but will admit I was 100% wrong
Wales.
Where men are men.
And sheep are terrified.
Once the Great Western had their tunnel in operation, the bridge at Sharpness was of little use. In fact it was of little use anyway for main line purposes. I was built to bring coal from the Forest of Dean to Sharpness docks ! It is a wonder it survived for so long.
I do remember watching the Queen opening the original Severn suspension bridge in 1966. There was a large services with views of the bridge, but is it now in a rather sorry state, because the new bridge has taken so much traffic away.
The railway tunnel still requires 24x7 pumping since it opened. The original steam powered pumps worked until the 60s ! Although the tunnel is under the tidal Severn Estuary, all the water, (11 millon gallons a day), is freshwater and dumped straight into the Severn. One would have thought this water could be on-sold to a water company, but that has never been done.
"I was built to bring coal from the Forest of Dean to Sharpness docks !" 💪
The original services building is now offices and in great shape, you can see it if you just wander up to the left of the new services (which are crap) and walk to the viewing point which is still there.
You say you have week videos. Come on, give yourselves some credit, they aren't that bad honestly!
Ba boom Tish..... I mean. I did laugh.
Great video - I've deleted my earlier comment suggesting there might have been an error. Slapped wrist for me!
Hahaha..... there probably are countless others
Good morning,
What a great video, that was “Two Months” well spent. What a lovely full review of the river Seven crossing.
Many Thanks
Ropey ferries. Do you mean ferries that used rope to cross. I'll get my coat. :-)
I mean... the Romans may have done that.
Just to let you know that the aust ferry still survives and it is in Chepstow on the banks of the river under the railway bridge. Currently being restored
Brilliant
So that means we have to stop telling the joke about getting out of Wales free, but the English have to pay to get in? Oh well. :)
Haha.... likewise!!
I was a teenager when the 2nd Severn crossing was being built. In the summer, we would go shooting at Rogiet Moor range (a new range built as the old one stood where the new bridge was to be built) this is still called the Severn tunnel range by quite a few people I know.
As you pass behind the butts as you walk the costal path, there are 2 sentry boxes, where 2 boys would be sent to watch for pedestrians and passing ships. In the event of either, shooting would stop until they had passed safely.
I wish I had taken a camera with me to record the progress of the bridge build
A mate of mine walked from one side of the river Severn to the other with a guide several miles north of the 1st road bridge in the 1980's.
I need to know more!!
I remember crossing on the Aust ferry as a child and remember the slightly alarming low freeboard of the ferry especially when surrounded by pretty substantial whirlpools on this very wild river.
I didn't realise how many Severn crossing attempts there had been, other than the Aust ferry (which when it ran never quite reached Wales, technically...). Awesome stuff as always.
Bonus points for the SNES controller shirt. 🤘😎🎮🕹️
Really enjoyed this nice to see you up the the shire. I had a chuckle about Severn Beach. As kids back in the 60s that was a day out a small fun fair was there happy days.
My dads first job was on the aust ferry
First!!!!
Oh wait!!!!!!! 4th????
@@thewhitewickmixtape Gotta hate it when even having insider information fails! 😄
Living in Gloucester it was very interesting to hear all about the history of the Severn crossings Thanks so much
Jutty Outty Bit! Reminds me of F1 Tech Talk!
I'm sure there is an official wording, right?
I remember counting the cars in front of us to see if we would be able to get on the next ferry. Then they built the bridge and instead of queuing for the ferry we queued for the bridge as one lane was always shut.
You should have added a trip on the other side of the Severn railway bridge at Awre. The magnificent tunnel is still there, in perfect condition despite no maintenance for nearly 60 years. The Awre platforms are still there and so are the fine stone blocks of the small viaduct which met the metal bridge (blown up in the 1970s by some scumbag council/BR official)
I found this a very interesting and informative video. Thank's for all your hard work in putting it together. Newnham is perfecly situated and the view over the Severn from the churchyard is spectacular. Surely a good case for reopening Newnham Station?
Awesome guys.. thanks
Very interesting. I travelled via the Aust-Beachley ferry in the 60s. The first Severn Bridge (now M48) was being built, and the ferry passed beneath the partially constructed bridge on its way across the river.
Thanks for a great video, I’m originally Bristolian and was there for the opening of the 1st bridge in 1966 which my father spent 5 years working on the construction. To be pedantic free crossing of the Severn Estuary was first possible in 1992 when the charge for travelling Eastbound was scrapped and tolls for Westbound only remained, these tolls were double the pre 1992 charge using the principle that 99% of vehicles going one way would soon go the other therefore costing would pan out equally. I used to take advantage of this anomaly as living in Worcestershire I could go to Cardiff in my van via Monmouth but return via the Severn crossing which was faster and free, large van prices were much higher than cars so well worth the slightly longer (in time) but less miles journey via the A40. I always returned via the “Old Bridge” on the M48 as a homage to my late father who worked as a welder on the bridge, to his friend killed there and the many others who died during its construction in the early 60’s😔
Thanks for your recollections Sir.
I don't live in UK now but think I remember that it was free to get into Wales but cost £? to get out. As a Londoner I felt that was fitting 🧐