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

Higher up on the same side of the river, we pass the mouth of the Little Avon, which flows by the ancient town of Berkeley, situated less than a mile inland.

Berkeley Castle was the scene of the murder of Edward II, in 1307. The castle, with its moat and ivied walls and towers, and its great baronial hall dating from the reign of Edward III. is one of the most remarkable survivals of feudal times ; while the church has the curious feature of its lofty square tower being set down in the churchyard away from the main body of the edifice.

On the other side of the Severn is the entrance to the diminutive port of Lydney, one of the outlets for the mineral wealth of the Forest of Dean, which was formerly a great forest of robbers, who were wont to put out in privateering craft and pillage vessels as they went up and down the Severn.

On our starboard side we now draw near to Sharpness, the entrance to the port of Gloucester, and note the harbour pier.

The tidal basin and docks of Sharpness have an area of about twenty acres, and are connected to the docks at Gloucester by a ship canal 16 miles in length, along which vessels of all nations, up to 800 tons burden, make their way through field, wood and pasture to the most inland port in the kingdom.

We have now a good view of the Severn Bridge, the finest of its kind in the United Kingdom. It was opened in 1879, its total length being 4,162 feet, with a clear headway of 70 feet above high water.

The iron used weighed 7,000 tons, and it comprises twenty-one spans, with a double span swing-bridge across the Gloucester ship canal at its southerly extremity. The railway across it brings Bristol within two hours' ride of the Forest of Dean.

About 300 yards this side of the bridge there is a whirlpool caused by the wash of the ebb tide round Wheel Rock. The centre of the swirl is  perceptibly below the level of the surrounding water, and a boat drawn in is spun rapidly round, and not easily pulled out. It is called " Fiddlers' Pool, " the legend being that a party of Welsh fiddlers, crossing the ferry on their return from a merrymaking at Berkeley, were all drowned here.