Features / things you probably didn't know
The gaol ferry that was here before Gaol Ferry Bridge
There is no longer a jail and nor is there a ferry. There is, however, a Gaol Ferry Bridge. Look underneath the span at low tide and you can still see reminders of when a ferryboat service operated across the New Cut before the bridge was built.
When it was opened in 1935, Gaol Ferry Bridge was officially named Southville Bridge but another name for it remains carved on the Southville side of the water: Coronation Bridge, with this name still visible carved underneath Coronation Road.
It seems, however, that neither of these names stuck and its quickly adopted nickname became its moniker; like the nearby chocolate path.
The name of Coronation Bridge can be seen if you walk down what remains of the paths that used to lead down from Coronation Road towards the ferry stop, with steps visible at low tide.
Similar paths still exist on the Wapping Wharf side of the water off Cumberland Road.
This is where steps once connected Coronation Road with the ferry over the New Cut
The route down to the former ferry service from Cumberland Road
With Gaol Ferry Bridge due to close on Monday for at least six months so essential repairs can be carried out, the question has already been asked: why cannot the ferry service be reinstated?
The gaol ferry (named after the prison on which Wapping Wharf stands today [the gatehouse still exists and its stable is now Bertha’s Pizza]) was established in 1829.
It was originally operated privately before being taken on by the City Corporation in 1854, who ran the service until it closed in 1935 with the opening of the new bridge.
Jeff Lucas writes in From Brycgstow to Bristol in 45 Bridges that 10,000 people used the ferry service each month at its peak but “silting up of the New Cut meant that the ferryboat had become difficult to operate at very low tides, thus ‘inconveniencing the working classes’ according to a local Labour councillor”.
Gaol Ferry Bridge is due to be closed from Monday for six months, with the nearest places to cross the New Cut being Bedminster Bridge and Vauxhall Bridge
All photos & video: Martin Booth
Read more:
- Bridge closure ‘threatens businesses’ very existence’, say traders
- The story behind Bristol’s two almost identical bridges
- Another bridge in Bristol will be out of bounds for ten weeks this summer
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