Following our visit to the remains of the Aust Ferry Terminal (described in another U3A Newsletter article), Val and I were interested to track down the “Severn Princess”, which had been operated by the Old Passage Severn Ferry Company Ltd, owned by Enoch Williams, on the Aust – Beachley car ferry route.

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Launched in Yorkshire in 1959, the ship was soon on active duty as one of the three vessels working the passage. However, on the day that the Severn Suspension Bridge was opened in 1966, the car ferries became redundant and the service ceased.

The ship was sold to a company in Galway, Ireland where she provided useful service to a fishery firm for some years. Sadly, the old ferry was eventually abandoned and left to founder at her moorings.

In 1999, a group of enthusiasts bought the ship for a guinea (£1.05) and, after much work to make her seaworthy again, had her towed back to the River Wye at Chepstow.

The plan was to restore the ferry and make her accessible to the public, as part of wider plans to regenerate the area around the Brunel railway bridge in Chepstow.

For some years, the vessel rested alongside the Beachley slipway, but was then moved and beached under the railway bridge about five years ago.

It’s there that we found her, unfortunately in an extremely poor condition, rusting, vandalised and apparently derelict. In her present state, it does not even seem possible that the old ferry could ever have been made seaworthy enough to be brought across the Irish Sea, even under tow.

The task of restoration now seems unachievable, such is the deterioration of the structure. It looks as if scrapping is inevitable, which will be a very sad end to a vessel which is part of the history of South Wales.

Steve Monaghan