Ferry Interseting

[neptune]

Living as i do in the heart of the Lincolnshire fens, almost every journey I make involves crossing water ways. As this land was reclaimed from the sea, the whole area is criss-crossed with rivers, and man made rivers known locally as drains. Road bridges are expensive, and can only be justified when demand is reasonably heavy. From the time the fens were drained until the early years of the twentieth century, ferries were used in areas where traffic was light. There were at least five ferries on the river Witham between Lincoln and Boston, as well as three bridges. The last one, at Dogdyke, did not close until 1965. It was operated by the landlord of a pub on the bank, and owned by the brewery.
These ferries were chain ferries. A chain was anchored at each bank, and lay on the river bed. The chain passed through a tunnel built into a boat, and was connected to a hand operated winder. It was probably quite hard work, as the load could be a dozen people and two or three cows or horses in busy times. At least one local ferry could carry a car. In the days when most people walked or biked, a ferry could save a detour of ten or fifteen miles,
There is a local story of an apprentice who was sent into town on a horse by his employer to collect some shopping. At lunch time he dallied too long at the pub, and arrived at the ferry just as the boat was leaving. With bravado born of alcohol, he spurred the horse to run down the ramp, and leap the 10 feet to the departing boat. He made it. But unfortunately when he landed on the boat, the horses hooves went through the bottom...
I find it sad that a thing that was so important a part of local life is now just a fading memory.

 

[flecc]

Plenty of chain ferries still running though, the long established Sandbanks ferry, just reaching 90 years old now, runs across the entrance to Poole Harbour for example. The current vessel is the fourth on this sea crossing:

Sandbanks Ferry

 

[hech]

Without bothering to investigate properly I hesitate to disagree there Flecc. But it's unlikely to be a proper chain driven ferry of the type Neptune refers to as it is far too big and a chain suspended across the mouth of Poole Harbour would be an extreme inconvenience to other vessels wishing to enter or leave. Perhaps it's got one of those new carbon fibre belts??

 

[GaRRy]

Without bothering to investigate properly I hesitate to disagree there Flecc. But it's unlikely to be a proper chain driven ferry of the type Neptune refers to as it is far too big and a chain suspended across the mouth of Poole Harbour would be an extreme inconvenience to other vessels wishing to enter or leave. Perhaps it's got one of those new carbon fibre belts??

Your going to lose. The chain lays on bottom of estuary/river bed and lifts up as it passes through boat thus allowing anything else to sail right over.

As flecc says there are still plenty of chain/cable ferrys still around.


The Cowes Floating Bridge loading at East Cowes
Butts Ferry, across the River Exe in Exeter, Devon
Cowes Floating Bridge, across the River Medina on the Isle of Wight
Dartmouth Higher Ferry, across the River Dart in Devon
Hampton Ferry, across the River Avon near Evesham in Worcestershire
Hampton Loade Ferry, across the River Severn in Shropshire
King Harry Ferry, across the River Fal in Cornwall
Reedham Ferry, across the River Yare in Norfolk
Sandbanks Ferry, across the entrance to Poole Harbour in Dorset
Stratford-upon-Avon Ferry, across the River Avon at Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire
Torpoint Ferry, across the River Tamar between Devon and Cornwall
Trowlock Island Ferry, to Trowlock Island in the River Thames
Windermere Ferry, across Windermere in Cumbria

 

[jhruk]

The Reedham Chain Ferry across the river Yare in Norfolk was once hand operated but is now motorised. The railway crosses nearby on a swing bridge but there’s no other road crossing between Great Yarmouth and Norwich. I used it only last month with my bike.

 

[flecc]

a chain suspended across the mouth of Poole Harbour would be an extreme inconvenience to other vessels wishing to enter or leave.

As Garry says, the chain is in the seabed and has to lift up to the ship with each traverse. Since the harbour entrance is narrow in comparison with Poole's huge harbour, the second largest natural harbour in the world, the entrance currents are very strong. That, combined with the chain slack to allow it to sit on the sea bed, results in an interesting course at times as I know from my many trips across. The strong current can carry the ferry either way out to sea or into the harbour as the ferry traverses the middle of the journey, resulting in a triangular route. The ferry first sets off at a diagonal offline, reversing that around the middle of the crossing to get back onto the route at the far landing ramp.

Incidentally one can step into the engine room and watch the chain passing through during the trip.
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