Volume Twelve - Pre-Victorian to the Present Day - further aspects - The Bristol Channel District Guide - selected articles - [1934 Edition] . . . .

We are soon alongside Clevedon Pier, and the favourable situation and beauty of the town cannot fail to call forth remark as we view it from the deck of the steamer.

Upon leaving Clevedon we observe the Lightship anchored in about five fathoms of water, marking the channel between the English and Welsh Grounds. This beacon, dear to the sight of the homeward-bound mariner, is situated about six miles from the shore, and is in charge of a little crew of five or six hardy sons of the sea, who in the discharge of their duty are practically isolated from the rest of the world. The present lightship has been on the station several years, the previous vessel having been run down and sunk by a steamer.

There are four lightships in the Bristol Channel - the English and Welsh Grounds, the Breaksea, the Scarweather, and the Helwick.

Rocking there in the cradle of the deep in all winds and weathers, they may well join in the spirited chorus of Kipling's " Coastwise Lights " -

" Our brows are bound and spindrift, and the weed is on our knees,
Our loins are battered 'neath us by the swinging, smoking seas,
From reef and rock and skerry - over headland, ness and voe -
The Coastwise Lights of England watch the ships of England go. "

Away over our starboard bow lies the busy port of Cardiff. And now the course of the steamer is shaped direct for Weston-super-Mare.