Exploring Alney Island

Last Monday morning I had a routine hospital appointment in Gloucester, so studied a map to find somewhere nearby for a walk in the afternoon. That's how I came to discover Alney Island, which I must have driven past dozens and dozens of times without realising it was there.

Using my clever(ish) PhotoStudio app, I've shaded the island in green on this 1960 OS map, which shows the old configuration of roads and railway lines.  In the intervening 60 years the Over Causeway has been realigned and the railway line to the docks has passed into history.

The River Severn splits into two at Upper Parting (though that name isn't shown on this map) and reunites about 2 miles south, at Lower Parting. Both channels used to be canalised, with weirs and locks at Maisemore and Llanthony. 

These days the whole island is a nature reserve. It was the lower half that interested me, especially the road bridge over the West Channel near the hospital and the railway bridge at the bottom, near the weir. 

Wandering around this part of Alney Island it was hard to remember that I was less than half a mile from Gloucester city centre. Rather than take the direct route along the old railway line, I kept to the West Channel river bank and soon arrived at my first objective.

Over Bridge (which some of my friends pronounce Oover) was built by Thomas Telford.  It opened in 1830 and, until the Severn Bridge was opened in 1966, was the lowest point downstream that the Severn could be crossed by road. It remained in use until the A40 was rerouted over a new bridge (visible through the archway) in 1974.

Telford based his design on one by the French engineer Jean-Rodolphe Perronet who, in 1774, came up with the idea of sloping the arch sides to minimise turbulence when the river flooded, which it frequently does. This feature is known as corne de vache (cow's horn). They must have exotic cows in France. 

The bridge isn't really curved, but I'm rather pleased with this photo, taken using the panorama feature on my smartphone. 

Here's the view from the top of Telford's bridge, looking south. The railway bridge carries the main line to South Wales and is a 1950's replacement for a bridge designed by Isambard Kingdom Brunel. Here's an article about it from the Railway Gazette.  Isn't the Internet wonderful!?

However, that bridge, dear reader, is not one that attracted me to Alney Island.  It was time, therefore, to trek down to the southern end.

On the way, I passed between two high walls. Whether due to the heat or the onset of lunacy, I cannot tell, but at the time the walls meant nothing to me. I just pressed on towards my second objective – Llanthony railway bridge.

I'm therefore indebted to bloggers Ian and Helen for this photo of what is clearly the old Llanthony lock. 

Here's the lock a few years after it ceased operation, with the railway bridge on the right.  According to a BBC website —

It remained in use until 1924 when the incredibly high walls of the lock (required to cope with the flood level) began to move inwards towards each other. Engineers prevented the walls from collapsing by inserting baulks of timber across the lock but a proper repair was considered too expensive and the lock was never used again. Don't worry though, it's perfectly safe today - most of the lock has been filled in leaving just the very top of the old walls visible.

 

At long last I made it to Llanthony railway bridge.  Sadly, it's no longer possible to get onto the bridge, but here's my photo of it, followed by an old black & white one and another taken after the railway had closed.

So why all this interest in a rather nondescript bridge?  Well, back in 1995 the BBC televised a mini-series based on Joanna Trollope's book The Choir. It was filmed in Gloucester and stared (among many others) Anthony Way as the choirboy Henry Ashworth, and Peter Vaughan as his granddad. 

In the last episode they stand on a disused railway bridge, within sight of Gloucester Quays... and now, 25 years later, I know where it was.