New Passage
New Passage is a hamlet in
Ferry
History
New Passage was for many years the location of a ferry crossing to and from South Wales, running from Chestle Pill near Pilning to Black Rock at Portskewett in Monmouthshire. The route provided an alternative to the centuries-old Aust ferry two miles (3 km) upstream, known as the "Old Passage". The New Passage, which offered a more direct route to South Wales, was probably in operation from 1630, when the New Passage Ferry Company was formed.[1]
The ferry was said to have been discontinued between 1645 and 1718.
In 1718 the New Passage ferry service was restarted by the Lewis family of
In 1825 the New Passage Association formed, using the 30-ton steamboat "St Pierre". However, the sponsorship by the
The railway tunnel passes under the River Severn from a point just south of New Passage.
Characteristics
The engineer Thomas Telford, after surveying the crossing, described it in his report as "one of the most forbidding places at which an important 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".[6] The river between New Passage and Black Rock was 11,200 feet wide at high water and 8,600 feet at low water, in comparison to figures of 6,800 and 4,700 feet for the Old Passage route.[7] The crossing was complicated by the fact that, apart from six hours a day around high tide, two-thirds of the passage was through a channel between the English Stones and the Dun sandbank through which the ebb tide flowed so quickly that "a passage [could not] be made against it except in strong and favourable winds".[7] Even after leaving this channel the ferries had to then cross the head of another channel, the Shoots, through which the current was so strong that they were often pulled down it by the ebb tide: all these difficulties meant that the passage was uncertain for around five hours a day.[7] It was these irregularities in the service that led to the General Post Office eventually transferring mail back to the Old Passage: by 1834 it was found that mail coaches were arriving late at Swansea four times out of five, "almost wholly caused by delays at the New Passage".[8] Nevertheless, the ferry was compared to the Aust crossing the most direct route into South Wales.[7]
Second Severn Crossing
In 1996 the Second Severn Crossing road bridge was completed, virtually along the same line as the Severn Tunnel. The bridge, the longest in the UK, carries M4 motorway traffic.
New Passage Hotel
The hotel was opened in 1863 to serve railway passengers, replacing the earlier New Passage House inn. When the ferry closed it continued to prosper as a privately owned public house. In 1921 the hotel was the location of experiments by the inventor
The hotel was closed in 1973. It was then sold by the Bracey family, and the building was left empty, until ravaged by the elements and neglect, it was finally demolished in the late 1970s. A small luxurious housing development was created on the resulting land.
Ecology
As of 2009, 31 species of
References
- ^ a b c d Northwick, Bristol and Avon Family History Society, accessed 27-03-18
- ^ Morgan, Octavius (1860) Notes on the ancient domestic residences of Pentre-Bach, Crick, Ty-Mawr, the Garn, Crindau, and St. Julian's, v4, p.12
- ^ a b Morgan (1860) p.13
- ^ Williams (ed). (1971) John Wesley in Wales, 1739-1790, UWP, p. 6
- ^ "Local government history website". Archived from the original on 10 April 2009. Retrieved 25 September 2006.
- ^ Rolt, LTC (1985) Thomas Telford, p.146
- ^ a b c d "Minutes of Evidence Taken Before the Select Committee on Post-Office Communication" (1842), Parliamentary Papers: 1780-1849, Volume 9, p.153
- ^ Williams, H. (1977) Stage Coaches in Wales, p.111
- ^ Marsh, Warren (1965). "The New Passage Hotel, Pilning" (PDF). Newsletter No. 5. Gloucestershire Society for Industrial Archaeology. Retrieved 12 September 2011.
- ^ Bowerman, Paul (2009). "2009 Sightings". Severnside Birds. Retrieved 1 June 2022.
Further reading
- Jordan, Christopher (1977). Severn Enterprise. Arthur H Stockwell. ISBN 0-7223-0967-8.
External links
- A drawing of the New Passage hotel in 1789 by Samuel Grimm, British Library