Sharpness

As well as timber, Sharpness handled all manner of grains, linseed, palm kernels, cotton seed, offal grains and ground nuts. From here anything up to a 1000 tons a day was taken by barge to mills along the reaches of the upper Severn. On the right of the picture is the grain silo. It was built in the 1930s, and had a storage capacity of 10,000 tons.
An extract from from"Down the Severn Photographic Memories".

The National Sea Training School trained both deck and catering ratings for service with the Merchant Navy. The trainees slept in the barrack-type accommodation seen in this picture.
An extract from from"Down the Severn Photographic Memories".

Constructed of wrought iron and completed in 1879, the Severn Bridge was the longest tied-arch, bowstring truss bridge on the British railway network. At 4161 ft in length, it carried not only the railway but a gas main. On the evening of 25 October 1960 in dense fog the bridge was struck by the estuarine tankers ‘Arkendale H’, carrying 400 tons of heavy fuel oil, and ‘Wastdale H’, loaded with 350 tons of petrol. Parts of the bridge fell onto the tankers, the gas main was fractured, and the resulting explosion brought down yet more debris onto the vessels. The heat became so intense that it welded the two ships together. Two complete sections of the bridge were destroyed. The bridge was eventually dismantled, part of it being sold to Chile for re-erection as a road bridge. The wrecks of the tankers can still be seen.
An extract from from"Down the Severn Photographic Memories".

When it opened in October 1879, the Severn Railway Bridge was hailed as wonder of engineering. Vessels collided with the bridge quite frequently, but the fatal blow came in October 1960. Two oil tankers, the Arkendale H and the Wastdale H, collided in fog and smashed into the bridge. Then less than two years later another oil tanker hit the bridge, to be followed by two floating cranes that inflicted more damage. This Severn landmark was dismantled in 1967, but a number of the spans were shipped intact to Chile, where they are in use today as a road bridge.
An extract from from"Gloucestershire Living Memories".

In the years following the end of the second world war, John Harker Ltd built several estuarine tankers on the foreshore at Sharpness. One of them might be in the background of this picture. After launching, the vessels were brought into Sharpness for fitting out. In the great days of sail, Sharpness graving dock was always busy, as most vessels calling at the port had their keels scraped before loading.
An extract from from"Down the Severn Photographic Memories".