Sharpness, Gloucestershire
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Sharpness ( ) is a port in the
civil parish In England, a civil parish is a type of administrative parish used for local government. It is a territorial designation which is the lowest tier of local government. Civil parishes can trace their origin to the ancient system of parishes, w ...
of Hinton, in the
Stroud Stroud is a market town and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is the main town in Stroud District. The town's population was 13,500 in 2021. Sited below the western escarpment of the Cotswold Hills, at the meeting point of the ...
district, in
Gloucestershire Gloucestershire ( , ; abbreviated Glos.) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in South West England. It is bordered by Herefordshire to the north-west, Worcestershire to the north, Warwickshire to the north-east, Oxfordshire ...
, England, one of the most inland in Britain, and eighth largest in the South West England region. It is on the
River Severn The River Severn (, ), at long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in t ...
at , at a point where the tidal range, though less than at Avonmouth downstream ( typical spring tide), is still large ( typical spring). There is a small community of approximately 100 residents directly adjacent to the port, in addition to the subvillage of Newtown approximately 0.5 miles to the south-east. Four miles to the south lies the small town of Berkeley.


Docks

Sharpness docks began as a basin giving access to the
Gloucester and Sharpness Canal The Gloucester and Sharpness Canal (also known as the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal) is a ship canal in the west of England, between Gloucester and Sharpness, completed in 1827. For much of its length the canal runs close to the tidal River S ...
. There were no port facilities at Sharpness itself and all traffic proceeded up the canal to
Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city, non-metropolitan district and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West England, South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean ...
. The original Old Dock opened, with the canal, in 1827. The dock was separated from the Severn by a lock gate. The level of the basin varied for the hour or two for which the gate was open and so it was isolated from the canal by a
lock Lock(s) or Locked may refer to: Common meanings *Lock and key, a mechanical device used to secure items of importance *Lock (water navigation), a device for boats to transit between different levels of water, as in a canal Arts and entertainme ...
with two gates. This lock was improved over time, expanding to be a ship lock of 163 ft length and 38 ft breadth and a smaller lock for
trow A trow was a type of cargo boat found in the past on the rivers River Severn, Severn and River Wye, Wye in Great Britain and used to transport goods. Features The Mast (sailing), mast could be taken down so that the trow could go under bridg ...
s of 81 ft and 19 ft. An intermediate lock gate was also provided in the larger lock, allowing shorter vessels to pass through more quickly and with less water consumption. A house for the Harbour Master was provided on the seaward dockside alongside the river gate. Today the Severn Area Rescue Association maintain a rescue station in the old house. The size of the Old Dock became a drawback for increasingly large ships and so in 1874 a floating New Dock was opened to the South. This had several advantages over the Old Dock: its entrance was now through a tidal basin and a large lock. This gave a constant water level within the dock, matching that of the canal, and so no locks were needed between dock and canal, encouraging traffic. The lock was 320 ft long and 57 ft wide. For ships longer than this, the basin itself could also be used as a lock. A
graving dock A dry dock (sometimes drydock or dry-dock) is a narrow basin or vessel that can be flooded to allow a load to be floated in, then drained to allow that load to come to rest on a dry platform. Dry docks are used for the construction, maintenance, ...
was provided parallel to the lock. This constant level encouraged the building of wharves and warehouses. With the new rail connections available to Bristol, Sharpness also developed as a port in its own right. At first the only stone quay was on the landward side of the dock, but after a railway
swing bridge A swing bridge (or swing span bridge) is a movable bridge that can be rotated horizontally around a vertical axis. It has as its primary structural support a vertical locating pin and support ring, usually at or near to its center of gravit ...
was built across the dock, the island area between the two docks also developed as a quayside. In typical fashion for the competing pre-Grouping railway companies, there were not only two railway lines into Sharpness, but there were even two separate bridges across the dock: the
Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844 in rail transport, 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had ...
's low level bridge from the south east to Berkeley, and the Great Western's high level bridge from the north and across the Severn. The line to the south was the Sharpness branch of the Bristol and Gloucester Railway, by this time part of the Midland, and opened on 2 August 1875. Although this line left Sharpness to the south, it joined the main line facing North. The northerly route across the bridge opened on 17 October 1879. An important development was on 19 March 1908 when a short Great Western line to the south of the previous junction formed the Berkeley triangle, giving a direct route to the Great Western main lines, and thus Bristol, through the Westerleigh Loop. After the New Dock was opened, the Old Dock and its cumbersome lock access to the canal was used less and less. From 1908 the old entrance was abandoned and the Old Dock became used for ship repair. After age, storm and tide damage led to the gates being removed and sealed permanently in the 1990s, the dock water level was raised to that of the canal and the locks could also be abandoned. Just north of Sharpness the river and canal were crossed by the Severn Railway Bridge, until it was damaged beyond repair by a barge collision in 1960. The bridge was locally convenient, schoolchildren crossing the river to go to school, but it was soon superseded for long-distance travel by the double tracked Severn Tunnel on the faster and more direct route between Bristol or London and Cardiff. Proposals to reinstate a river-crossing at this point are frequently made especially by the local authorities in
Lydney Lydney is a town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in Gloucestershire, England. It is on the west bank of the River Severn in the Forest of Dean District, and is 16 miles (25 km) southwest of Gloucester. The town has been Bypass ( ...
, which lies almost opposite Sharpness. The Port Authority for the
impounded dock Impoundment may refer to: Water control * The result of a dam, creating a body of water ** A reservoir A reservoir (; ) is an enlarged lake behind a dam, usually built to water storage, store fresh water, often doubling for hydroelectric ...
is
Canal & River Trust The Canal & River Trust (CRT), branded as in Wales, holds the guardianship of 2,000 miles of canals and rivers, together with reservoirs and a wide range of heritage buildings and structures, in England and Wales. Launched on 12 July 2012, the ...
, but the quayside activities are run by Sharpness Dock Limited. The competent (statutory) harbour authority for the river from the Severn Road Bridges up to Sharpness and on to Gloucester is Gloucester Harbour Trustees - they are responsible for navigation aids in the channel and for the provision of pilots. Pilotage up the river is compulsory (except for exemption holders) for all vessels over 30 metres length overall. Between 1939 and 1966, the demasted sailing ship '' Vindicatrix'' was moored in the Old Dock as a training
hulk The Hulk is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by writer Stan Lee and artist Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in the debut issue of ''The Incredible Hulk (comic book), The Incredible Hulk ...
for the Merchant Navy. Seafarers' welfare charity Apostleship of the Sea, which provides practical and pastoral support to seafarers, has
port chaplain
who covers Sharpness.


Railway links

The port remains connected to the main Gloucester to Bristol railway line with its junction at the site of the former Berkeley Road railway station. The line is rarely used (if ever) although a steam special visited the line in April 2007, making two journeys from Gloucester. The locomotive (The Lancashire Fusilier) ran round its train using the loop at Sharpness. From the branch line, protected by locked gates, rails remain in situ around the docks and are linked to the line from Berkeley Road, however the condition of the track makes it look unlikely that any of them are usable. This is due to change as the Vale of Berkeley Railway, a charitable trust, has begun restoration work on the sidings and has plans to eventually run trains again between Sharpness and Berkeley Road, where the line joins the main Bristol–Gloucester line.


In popular culture

The final episode of the third series of teenage drama '' Skins'' was filmed on location in Sharpness.


References


External links



Time-lapse videos of changing tides
BBC archive film of Sharpness from 1978
{{authority control Ports and harbours of Gloucestershire Villages in Gloucestershire Populated places on the River Severn Stroud District