The Woolston Ferry Song

For many years there was a chain ferry across the river Itchen from Southampton to Woolston. Also known as the Floating bridge. It was Painted by artist LS Lowry RA. About 30 years ago it was replaced by a bridge. But it was part of Southamptons identity.
The Woolston Ferry
I looked over Woolston and what did I see
Coming for to carry me home
That old Woolston Ferry coming towards me
Coming for to carry me home
(Remainder sung to the tune of 'Midnight Express')
If you're ever up in Sholing
And you want to go to town
Don't you go by Bitterne
That's the long way round
Take a trip across the ferry
Take a trip across the sea
And if you're a pedestrian
You can go for free
Chorus
On the Woolston Ferry
It doesn't travel very fast
It was never built for comfort
It was built to last

On two steel hawsers
Across the river it will creep
The silver glints in the sunlight
And flops back into the deep
And from the deck of the ferry
What a wonderful sight
Them shipwrights grafting
And Thorneycroft's on the right

Go and see Lowry's painting
In the Art Gallery
Of the wonderful relic
Of a past century
And when I speak of it's construction
You'll be suprised to learn
That the bow going one way
Coming back becomes the stern

See the weather-beaten captain
With his weather-beaten tan
He don't wear no gold braid
He's a corporation man
But the captains of the ferry
They're a dying race
There ain't no ex-tram drivers
To take their place

But the floating bridge has had it
It will have to go
The motorists don't like it
16p a throw
So they've built a bridge of concrete
Very modern, very high
Every time I use it
I look down and heave a sigh

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• woolston
• ls
• Lowry
• chain
• ferry
• southampton
• bitterne
• itchen
• solent
• uk
• saints
• football
• floating
• bridge
• song
• funny

[chickenwrangler]

I feel so old now! It was a Rite of Passage to go to Town on your own on the Floating Bridge. When it was turned into a nightclub my Hubby was a bouncer there, way before I met him. It seems like another lifetime ...

[stajs02]

He might of been on the door the night I saw Tom Robinson Band in a very early Aids benefit gig!

[TGRWorzel]

@MrJohnhepworth7 Very true. Besides the St Mary's stadium (which is not from the same era as the ferry..!) I notice that the old Supermarine building (home of the Supermarine Spitfire) is visible (on the left) in the first colour photo of the ferry.

[TGRWorzel]

Southampton is a much poorer place for the passing of the Woolston Ferry.

If only we'd kept the Woolston Ferry, Southampton Terminus, the rail lines into the docks, the trams, the old bus station, the western shoreline and more of the walls (esp around the Bargate) Southampton would be a fascinating place to live&work and to visit today...

[lynroe1949]

I live in Aus now, but well remember the ferry. My older brother also cycled into the River Itchen when he was about 18 in 1960, he got up late and thought he could somehow still get on the ferry even though it was already pulling out!! He came home soaking wet, I have never forgotten that!

[Framperz]

In the late 1970's I was a barman at the Seaweed Inn at Woolston. I used to cycle there in the evenings from Millbrook via the bridge. One evening after a few too many drinks I cycled down the ramp to the ferry but misjudged it as the ferry was leaving and ended up in the Itchen. Happy memories!

[adelaidejetboy]

This brings back some interesting memories, because I remember this most from the B-side of a Southampton Football Club single I had sent to me from relatives in Soton not long after we won the FA Cup in '76. My late Dad was born and raised in Sholing Road and brought us to Australia when I was nearly 5 (in 1968) and things like this remind me of him. A part of me will always be a Southampton lad.

[MrJohnhepworth7]

As parochial as it gets. Will mean absolutely nothing to anyone who is not local-ish to Southampton. You can see St Mary's Stadium on the map, though...

[HenryFalkner]

And you made it sound like a 78 recording as well. Never heard of Woolston. I lived in the South of England.

[ginrik]

Great stuff, my old man was a pattern maker and made the mould for the wheels that guided the ferry on the cables, and reminded us of this EVERY time we went across !! Now live on the north coast of Scotland,do I miss Woolston,....no :)

[aidendollery]

bring back the ferry

it will bring back so many memorys 4 ppl

[badroo]

Floaters Nightclub! What a dump!!!

I just about remember going on the floating bridge to Woolston.

That's an odd positioning of Sholing on the music video.

The guy pronounces 'town' and 'around' just like my mum. Cracks me up.