Welcome to Severn Tales home to videos mainly based on the very popular website of the same name. The content of the channel includes many films associated with the River Severn, the Severn Estuary, shipping at Sharpness and Gloucester plus a wide range of topics including wildlife, transport and people. The Channel also includes a series of films associated with Cities, Towns and Villages.
Pure history i hope its saved! , the youth of today would have no Appreciation for this , rather instagram and fake rubbish 🤦 sad really. The hard work that went into making that back in the day .
Hello Mr. Witts, Very interesting video and for me, who lives in landlocked Austria, in the state of Styria, it is very amazing to see how a river so close to the sea and, as you say, with the second highest tide change in the world can change its appearance depending on the season! It must be very nice to be able to witness the arrivals and departures of the ships in Sharpness; here in Austria we are more photographing and filming trains and so all I can say is, it must be very nice to ride on this train from Gloucester to Cardiff, thanks for showing it! Have a nice week ahead! Many greetings from Deutschfeistritz, Styria, Austria 🇦🇹, Christoph G. 😊🚢🤝
Many thanks Christoph, one problem, we locals don't appreciate what is on our doorstep thus not taking advantage of doing what you suggest, the train ride from Gloucester to Cardiff.
@@ChrisWitts That's actually a shame, because a train journey can be a very nice experience! We here in our "Übelbachvalley" are already waiting very hard for the renovation work due to the flash flood from June 8th, 2024 to be successfully completed and for our "Übelbacherrailway" to be able to run again! 😊🙏🌊🚧🚋
0:02 In 1960s Berkeley Castle had gone. The Sharpness pilot boat stationed at Portishead then was 'Alaska'. The pilots and apprentices were housed ashore in a two room brick building on the wall outside the lock entrance. Accessed the 'Alaska' using a rowing (sculled) boat. I seem to remember hearing from them that Berkeley Castle had been taken over privately by one of the ex pilots and taken somwhere up the canal. Not sure about this now.
@@DavidGarfitt I was a frequent visitor, having ideas of applying to be an apprentice. Often went out to Walton Bay on Alaska, boarding or disembarking pilots. There were two apprentices, Richard Morgan and the other's name I have forgotten.
@@DavidGarfitt I remember those names, but they must have been the previous apprentices. Or maybe one was Keith Hadley. My memory for names is fading. I'm 72 now, and my time of hanging around the pier was in my teens. I went to sea in 1970, aged 18. Remember using the 'punt' to scull out with a pilot to board "Reginald Kearon" just off the pier.
@johnland5042 hi John, sadly I can't remember and I am away currently so can't access my records. I do know that she is laid up at Sharpness, company gone bust!
Hi Chris. I watch ships going up and down the channel from Croyde Bay going past lundy and viewed KRISLIN on it's way up. Just found your channel and subscribed. John
Hello Mr. Witts, A wonderful and exciting recording, very interesting to be able to follow such maneuvers! Many greetings from Styria, Austria 🇦🇹, Christoph G. 😎🚢
Lytham Shipbuilding also built one of the two famed African Queen boats from the movie. The boat used on the Congo segment of the movie is the Lytham boat, and is now on display in Florida.
Yes but we discovered in our village that 300 tons of imported Egyptian fertiliser was to be replaced by 30000 tons of digester waste and 100 tons of fertiliser was still to be used to make up value. The local farm supply green crops to aid the digester because food waste for which they are designed does not produce enough gas to make them viable. Another waste of tax payers money as the digester waste is 95% of the supplied product to the digester. There is no free gas or electricity it all has a cost! For digesters it is loss of food production and land erosion for the harvest is so late cover crops are not planted. As the soil loss is so high and blasts a hole in DEFRA targets they have removed the loss from their equation. No equation no loss! They are not telling a lie because the figures are not recorded!
We have an old mine sweeper in birkenhead docks shitting on the bottom now such a shame im glad too see this one in getting a second chance and will be great once its finished well ďone to all involved in the restoration
Thanks Chris. Entertaining and informative as always! May I ask, what is the lock's limitation (length and beam). and has the port of Sharp-ness have a future?
Sad thing about this is we should,nt be importing fertaliser ,closing down the ones in the uk is biggest threst to our food supply, its looks like they want to close all the farms as well, fun fact Russia is now world's biggest fertiliser producer that boats on its way to Russia as we speak for more then it go to Rotterdam and reinvent the source of fertiliser to go to bring UK
Back in the 50s as a child we would have a day trip from our home in the (Royal) Forest if Dean to Sharpness docks via the old Severn Railway Bridge. Picnic with us of course. Well remember when the bridge came down, listened to the police radio on our old VHF radio. Cycled down on the following weekend to witness the damage.
@roblloyd1879 hi Rob, that must have been some sight to see. Yesterday I was under the Pembroke Bridge that collapsed in 1975. Met a chap who arrived there minutes after it happened.
Hi I worked on the River Thames on the Tugs and I remember the traffic was Very busy , Just like Rotterdam, The Thames is now dead the only traffic is the pleasure boats and the rubbish barges , ah well thats life.
I was brought up there unrecognisable from my youth. All the pubs are gone it has clearly gone up market, great if you like that sort of thing but it was a working mill town like so many up north, but in the heart of the Cotswolds. I cannot believe there is much night life in the winter when the shops close.
Excellent video with plenty of variety. Last weekend was the Rotterdam Port week (even though I think it only took place from 6th to 8th of September).
I had done the harbour tour for the first time in the early 1990s, it was far better then than in this film which I made not that long ago. How times change!
Brings back many happy memories of working on Gloucester lock…. Nobody more surprised than me to see myself at the end of the video working on Gloucester lock… cracking film Chris.
I used to go to sharpness,when castle cement had it years ago,I was with Febrys transport,then later with CRW transport,I remember Jim who drove the bobcat,good old boys good old days.
