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Sharpness, Gloucestershire

Field	Value
country	England
static_image_name	070605 uk glos sharpness.jpg
static_image_caption	The main dock
official_name	Sharpness
coordinates
civil_parish	Hinton
shire_district	Stroud
shire_county	Gloucestershire
region	South West England
constituency_westminster	Stroud
post_town	BERKELEY
postcode_district	GL13
postcode_area	GL
dial_code	01453
os_grid_reference	ST675024

Sharpness ( ) is a port in the civil parish of Hinton, in the Stroud district, in Gloucestershire, England, one of the most inland in Britain, and eighth largest in the South West England region. It is on the River Severn at , at a point where the tidal range, though less than at Avonmouth downstream (14 m typical spring tide), is still large (10 m 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.{{Cite web

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.{{Cite web

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'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.{{Cite book

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 The bridge was locally convenient, schoolchildren crossing the river to go to school, but it was soon superseded for long-distance travel by the double tracked Severn Tunnel on the faster and more direct route between Bristol or London and Cardiff.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, which lies almost opposite Sharpness.

The Port Authority for the impounded dock is Canal & River Trust, 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 for the Merchant Navy.{{Cite web

Seafarers' welfare charity Apostleship of the Sea, which provides practical and pastoral support to seafarers, has a 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

{{harvnb. Maggs. 1992

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

ports-and-harbours-of-gloucestershire villages-in-gloucestershire populated-places-on-the-river-severn stroud-district

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