The remains of the Severn railway bridge, May 2026. a walk along the Gloucester & Sharpness canal

Added: 2026-05-30

[00:00:04]Good morning. Welcome back to the channel.

[00:00:06]Today, I'm down to Gloucester and Sharpness Canal and I'm going to take a walk down to the Severn Railway Bridge.

[00:00:13]What remains of the Severn Railway Bridge just along the canal here.

[00:00:17]And what a beautiful day it is for a stroll along this canal.

[00:00:26]The swans enjoying themselves.

[00:00:28]It's just lovely down here.

[00:00:34]Yes, really nice.

[00:00:45]The Severn Railway Bridge was built to carry trains across the River Severn between Sharpness and Purton in Gloucestershire and Lydney, Monmouthshire, now Gloucestershire, on the Forest of Dean side.

[00:00:57]It opened in 1879 and was about 4,160 ft long.

[00:01:04]It was constructed mainly to move coal from the Forest of Dean, carry goods to the docks at Sharpness, and avoid the much longer route via Gloucester.

[00:01:13]The bridge had 21 spans, a swing section for ships, massive wrought iron lattice girders, brick piers sunk deep into the river bed.

[00:01:24]On the 25th of October, 1960, two river barges, the Arkendale H and the Wastdale H, carrying petroleum products drifted into thick fog and struck one of the river piers.

[00:01:37]The impact and subsequent fire caused two spans to collapse into the Severn.

[00:01:42]British Rail decided it was too expensive to rebuild because traffic had already declined.

[00:01:48]The bridge was officially closed in 1965 and dismantled shortly afterwards.

[00:01:54]The two barges carried a crew of eight people, of which five died that night in the fire.

[00:02:24]And these two structures ahead are pretty much all that remains.

[00:02:29]I believe this is the swing bridge part.

[00:02:32]And to the left, that's the part that goes to Shotness.

[00:02:37]To the right will take you across the Severn.

[00:02:40]These structures are still here.

[00:02:42]So, I'm going to take the drone up and see what I can see.

[00:03:14]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Mhm.

[00:06:00]>> [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] [music] >> Well, I hope you've enjoyed that short video.

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[00:07:15]See you next week.