THE LONG VIEW: How we crossed the Severn before the bridge

In the second of a series of features, MARTIN WADE looks at the ways the Severn was crossed before 1966 and the thwarted attempts to build a bridge between the two countries.

FOR thousands of years travellers wanting to cross the Severn had to risk a ferry crossing over dangerous, wild tidal waters or take the 60-mile detour via Gloucester.

The Romans worked a ferry between Aust and Beachley linking Bath and Caerleon, calling the route the Via Julia Maritima.

The crossing was a treacherous one. The tidal range of the Severn is the second-highest in the world, with 13 metres of difference between low and high tide. The funnel shape of the estuary means as these tides change vast quantities of water rush up and down the estuary, creating vicious and dangerous currents. A steam ferry began to ply the crossing in 1827 making the crossing somewhat safer, but still the traveller was at the mercy of the tides and the weather.

Around this time, plans were discussed to build a bridge across the Severn between England and Wales.

The first proposal came in 1824 from the great engineer and bridge builder Thomas Telford. He had been asked to advise on how to improve mail coach services between London and Wales.

He proposed to build the crossing at around the same place as the one used eventually by the Severn Bridge.

He was in no doubt as to the scale of the challenge. He described the area where the crossing was planned as "one of the most forbidding places at which a ferry was ever established; a succession of violent cataracts formed in a rocky channel exposed to the rapid rush of a tide which has scarcely an equal on any other coast".

Civil engineer and the county surveyor for Gloucestershire, Thomas Fulljames, proposed a barrage in 1849 from Beachley to Aust, spanning just over a mile. His plan aimed not only to provide a road crossing of the estuary, but also a large shipping harbour in the Severn Estuary.

Neither of these plans were pursued and for the following decades the traveller had to choose between steam ferry or the long route via Gloucester. In this time, the railway replaced the coach and horse as the way to travel long distances and so the need for a Severn Crossing was again examined. Although not linking Wales with England, the Severn Railway Bridge at Sharpness opened in 1879 and crossed to Lydney on the opposite side of the river. The single-track bridge was preceded by a greater crossing which still works today. Isambard Kingdom Brunel had drawn up plans to cross the Severn as early as 1844 with both bridges and tunnels.

In 1886, a four-mile Severn tunnel was finally complete. Until recently it was the longest mainline railway tunnel in the UK and its construction saw the use of the latest diving apparatus as engineers battled to divert flooding from underground springs. Around 50 million litres of water are still pumped from the tunnel every day.

As both bridge and the tunnel carried the majority of traffic across the Severn, there was little demand for an alternative crossing.

With the growth in road transport following the end of the First World War, there were again calls for a road crossing.

The early 1920s saw Chepstow Urban District Council call neighbouring authorities to debate a Severn crossing to ease congestion on the A48 passing through the town. In 1936 a Severn Bridge Committee was formed by Monmouthshire and Gloucestershire Councils. They appointed consulting engineers who produced a design for a two-and-a-half mile bridge following the route taken by the tunnel. A bill was promoted in parliament. However opposition from the Great Western Railway Company saw the bill rejected by Parliament.

The end of the Second World War brought saw ambitious plans for Britain’s infrastructure to be reconstructed. Major industries were nationalised and centrally planned. Transport and improving the road network were seen as vital to the success of this project of national renewal.

A Severn Bridge was to be part of a new road network and a public inquiry into the planned crossing opened at Bristol University in December 1946. However, the public purse couldn't stretch to such ambitious plans. Britain was almost bankrupted by the financial drain of war and the plans were shelved.

Funding from central government was eventually given to the similar Forth Road Bridge, which was opened in 1964, but the Severn Bridge eventually got the go-ahead with construction starting in 1961.

But before the Severn Bridge was opened in 1966, if you were driving, the quickest way to cross the river from England to Wales was by ferry.

Although there had been a ferry across the Severn at roughly the point where the bridge would be built since at least Roman times, a steam ferry service closed with the opening of the Severn Tunnel in 1886.

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

Taking the boat with Old Passage Severn Ferry Company Ltd was not without its hazards. As car ownership grew, so did queues at Aust and Beachley for the ferry.

Often drivers would wait for hours only to find that the tide had dropped and had missed the last ferry meaning they had to drive the long way round. Many times exhausts were torn off by the loading ramps. Plenty chanced it with around 300,000 cars used the service in its last operational year.

It was a short but difficult route to sail across the ever-changing tides. Because the ferries had to cope with tidal ranges of up to 13 metres, they had no keel, which made it easier to cope with the lowest of tides. This also made them more difficult to steer.

The railway still eyed what traffic the ferry services ran and in 1924, the Great Western Railway started to take cars on railway wagons through the tunnel between Pilning and Severn Tunnel Junction as an alternative to the Aust ferry. With its erratic timetable determined by the tides, or the long road journey via Gloucester, this was seen as a more reliable service. The service continued until the opening of the Severn Bridge in 1966.

Many of the crew members found jobs on the bridge and on the day it opened, the three ferries took their bow and gathered by the crossing. As the Queen drove across the bridge to open it they sounded their hooters signalling the end of that special ferry ride across those difficult waters.