Welsh Journals

The New Passage Railway Ferry by Harry Lewis For many years the New Passage crossing of the Severn linked Bristol with South Wales. The Gwent end of the crossing was at Black Rock, Portskewett and for the last twenty-three years of its existence during the second half of the nineteenth century it was a railway ferry. Today evidence of this function is provided by a deep cutting, now overgrown, which was followed by a branch line from Portskewett Junction railway station to the Severn. Leading to Black Rock beach from Main Road at the eastern end of Portskewett village is a minor road which, via two bridges, crosses the main line railway and the abandoned cutting. Beyond the second bridge the minor road and cutting run roughly parallel to each other seawards. In many places the cutting is still bounded by the original railway fencing posts. On the beach and on a grassy bank above the jetty Great Western Railway metal boundary posts still stand. Again, at spring tide low water some of the footages of the pier, which continued the line of the railway from the cutting over the Severn, can be seen. (See photographs.) Fig. 1. The branch railway and ferry pier station at Black Rock, Portskewett. Note: A detailed map of the New Passage end of the railway ferry in 1879 is contained in 'Industrial Archaeology of the Bristol Region' by A. Buchanan & N. Cossons, p. 219.