Severn Railway Bridge - Demolition

The Severn Railway Bridge was a railway bridge in Gloucestershire that used to cross the tidal River Severn from Sharpness to Lydney. Read more about the bridge visit http://www.worldwidehistory.net/index.php/europe/119-severn-railway-bridge-uk.

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People & Blogs

Tags:

• severn
• railway
• bridge
• demolition

[May11th1983]

I think thepublandlord1 could be a plumber.

[MiLLwallpaul231258]

those poor men that built this bridge must be turning in their graves

[ScumOfTheRoad]

Nice video! I went over today to see the remains of the bridge and the two barges that hit it. It's surprising how much you can still see at low tide. I'm descended from John Harker, whose company owned and operated the barges, so I feel partly responsible for the fact that the bridge is no longer there ... :-)

[Inkyminkyzizwoz]

@thepublandlord1 I believe the Beeching cuts started under a Conservative Government, unless I'm mistaken.

Anyway, the real villain wasn't really Beeching - it was Ernest Marples. Having a Minister of Transport who also owned a road building company was never going to be good news for the railways, regardless of which party he belonged to! That wouldn't even be allowed today for obvious reasons!

[MK55A]

@thepublandlord1 - I work on the railways, have done for 40 years, so i think i know what i am talking about. What job do you do and what planet are you from ?

[thepublandlord1]

@MK55A But it weren't t'Consevatives who murdered t'railways - it were t'Labour as right as rain. The state vandalism depicted in this short film as being carried out with unfettered, almost priapic glee happened in the middle of some Labour years, whose pollies and people loved cars more than most care to admit now. To be fair, like.

[Inkyminkyzizwoz]

@rockerbsa I just found out last night that the only person who can authorise closure of a line is the Secretary of State for Transport, so techincally it's incorrect to say that Beeching closed all these lines! He would've only recommended the closures as Chairman of the British Railways Board.

[rockerbsa]

The railways were going to be run down in the 50s with the md of a road building company installed as minister of transport, nothing more to be said.

[MK55A]

To be fair, it was the tory government who all of sudden didn't want the railways (like they did with the pits in the 80's and soon after that it was going to be our turn) If railway people run the railways, not these idiots who have degrees and 'A' levels in other things bar railway work, we wouldn't have been in this position would we.

From a railway man with 40 years service in !

[Inkyminkyzizwoz]

@PhilJonesIII To be fair, the railways were losing an awful lot of money which in the aftermath of WWII we simply couldn't afford to be losing!