Old Ferry Hotel, Beachley

Beachley has been a crossing point over the River Severn possibly since Roman times. The crossing, known as Old Passage, connects Beachley with Aust on the Bristol side of the channel. Sailing ships once ferried passengers across the Severn. In 1827 Royal Mail Stagecoaches from Bristol and Liverpool used the crossing. By the first quarter of the 19th century steam vessels took over the route. In the 18th century three inns existed in Beachley to cater for passengers using the ferry crossing.

Possibly the oldest of these is the Old Ferry Inn, which lies under the shadow of the original Severn Road Bridge. Over the years the inn has been known as the Beachley Inn, Ferry Hotel, Beachley Ferry Hotel and latterly the Old Ferry Inn. Its heyday was in the 1950’s and early 1960’s when the Beachley Ferry Hotel was ideally situated to cater for the needs of the motorist – ‘a modern and well-appointed hotel overlooking the River Severn.” There were three ferries using the crossing, the largest of which could only accommodate 17 cars. Not surprisingly there were often lengthy queues waiting for the ferry. When the Severn Bridge opened for traffic in September 1966 the Beachley – Aust ferry was made redundant. The last remaining ferry ‘the Severn Princess’, which entered service in 1959, lay beached beneath the Old Ferry Inn for many years after it was rescued from Ireland in 1999 after being purchased for a guinea. There are plans to restore it to its former glory.

In May 2018 the Old Ferry Inn was put on the market with a guide price of between £260,000 and £300,000. A spokesman for the auction company said ‘In view of the impending abolition of the tolls on the Severn Bridges at the end of the year it could be an extremely attractive opportunity either to be operated as a going concern with more people likely to be attracted to the area or, subject to planning, to be developed for alternate uses.’ Despite the magnificent location of the Old Ferry Inn the access to it was through Beachley on a road to nowhere. With no passing traffic and the earmarked closure of the Beachley Barracks in 2027, a British Army base and home of First Battalion the Rifles, the pub had closed by the summer of 2018.