The Bristol Railway Archive

A group of friends - me being one of them! - now often travel around places by train. We've now been to Trowbridge, Weston-super-Mare, and Clifton Down (for Bristol Zoo) so far. We're planning on going to Cheltenham, Gloucester, Weymouth, Cardiff and Salisbury - basically places we can get extremely inexpensive Cheap day return "groupsave" tickets!

We were thinking of going to Severn Beach sometime or another too, to explore the area since I've never been - but my dad's said it's not really a great place to go...is there any walks, pubs, views or general attractions in the area? I've had a look round the web and I could hardly find anything at all about Severn Beach! If there's not much, we'd probably go just to enjoy the train ride, stay till the next train arrives, go back to Bristol TM and spend the rest of the day afterwards exploring Bristol city centre, seeing as it's only ú1 more per groupsave ticket
thanks!

Your dad's right, there's nothing to do in Severn Beach!
It's worth the train ride, though, as the line runs through the Avon Gorge on its way to Avonmouth and "The Beach".
AM

Thanks for the reply!

I was looking at National Rail's site at the train times for Severn Beach, and was quite surprised that most trains that run on this line throughout weekdays terminate at Avonmouth with a bus that runs to SB. The only time which trains go all the way to SB is once at 9am and from 5pm onwards, which is a shame since I was hoping there'd be trains around 10am.
I did notice, however, that all trains on Saturday terminate at SB, so perhaps it would be best to visit SB early one Saturday and enjoy Bristol city centre in the afternoon.

There is loads to see in Severn Beach.

Get of the train and have a look around:

Walk to the Seafront. View the Magnificiant Estuary.

View the Bridges.

If you you walk North along the sea wall you could visit the Second Severn Bridge info centre.

If you go South you take in the extensive array of Wildlife being an SSI area.

As for general tacky entertainment go to Bristol

As a boy in the 60s and 70s I loved the ride to The 'Beach and used to do a round trip most Saturdays. I remember a very basic fair ground at Severn Beach, which I never actually saw open! I often got a cab ride as I was quite well-known to the crews. The "Bubble Cars" regularly used were 55001 (until it went into departmental use) 55013, 55032/3/4/5 Until dual AWS was fitted on 55035 it had what I think was a unique version of the GWR ATC in that it was cancelled by a red push-button on the control desk rather than by a lever on the side of the control box. On one occasion, a driver who had not come across it was totally flumoxed before leaving Temple Meads as to how to cancel it, until I banged on the window between the passenger compartment and the cab and told him! He was very suspicious as to how I knew!

This has to be a site record for rejuvenating an old thread Look at the dates of the original postings ...

Of course, there's now even less to do at Severn Beach 8 years on ...

To be fair, the little cafe does a good bacon sandwich, if you can catch it open and the house at the end of the platform has more CCTV cameras than I have ever seen on any other house.

I too remember the bubble cars very well - they wouldn't be big enough for the rush hour nowadays - how times change

The internet failing to come up with the required obscure "goods," this post involved putting a plug back on the record player and going through a box of 45rpm singles from the 50s, 60s and 70s

Our local Bard, Adge Cutler, immortalised the unparalleled delights of this part of the western shore in his song from 1968 "Aloha Severn Beach." Sung in a Hawaiian style, the lyrics are repeated below. The railway references in them almost make this post on-topic

Unfortunately, many of the sights and sounds of Severn Beach in the 1960s are no longer there - probably something to do with climate change and global warming

ThereÆs a little corner of heaven
Down there, by the River Severn
And I want to see, I want to be there
Down there by that Severn shore
For weeks, IÆve been scraping and saving
To get back where palm trees are waving
Where everbodyÆs ranting and raving
Waiting for the Severn bore

There beneath that western moon
Life can be so sweet, dangling your feet, in the Blue Lagoon

I want to see them salmon come leaping
Want to see that dawn come a-creeping
ôCause every night is Saturday night
Down in Severn Beach

Chorus: ôAlo-oh-ha, alo-oh-ha, Alo, aloha Severn Beach"

IÆm just waiting and riding
Until I reach that Chittening siding
Just to stamp my feet on the old concrete
Down there with those pretty queens
IÆll meet my sweet in her finery
Down by that oil refinery
WeÆll dance and play the days away round by the slot machines

There upon those golden sands
WeÆll dine on chips, IÆll touch her lips and she will hold my hand

And then IÆll take her to that Saturday function
Not far from Pilning Junction
æCause every night is Saturday night
Down in Severn Beach

jules wrote:This has to be a site record for rejuvenating an old thread Look at the dates of the original postings ...

And it won't be the last rejevenation! In an idle moment I thought I'd look back to the early pages (before I joined) to see if there is anything to which I could add. Might I suggest that more people do so? For one thing, there are probably topics being duplicated as people didn't realize there was already a thread running..... Just a thought!

In an idle moment I thought I'd look back to the early pages

Yep, Doubtless there are a wealth of stories in this venerable forum that we have discussed over and over again across the years

Thanks for the walk down memory lane ... As to Robin's taste of music, it seems to be one of the few things that doesn't improve with age!

I do recall having a beer in the huge Severn Salmon public house before it was demolished. It had obviously seen much better days (and customers). Just the size of the place suggested that when it was built, it must have been rocking most Friday / Saturday nights. Maybe even to the gentle tones of a certain Mr Cutler!

And it won't be the last rejevenation!

Please, whatever you do, don't start another location quiz!!!

jules wrote:

And it won't be the last rejevenation!

Please, whatever you do, don't start another location quiz!!!

Promise

jules wrote:
Thanks for the walk down memory lane ... As to Robin's taste of music, it seems to be one of the few things that doesn't improve with age!

What are you saying

The last time I posted about anything musical was a Youtube link to Flanders and Swann and "The Slow Train" with its mention of Chittening Platform. Is the mention of "Chittening siding" and "Pilning Junction" in some way not up to standard?

Anyway:

Wales has Dylan Thomas
Finland has Sibelius
Germany has Wagner
Stratford on Avon has William Shakespeare
etc etc
We've got Adge Cutler

Seriously though (and completely off-topic) some of Cutler's rhyming couplets are remarkably clever. Take for example the last verse of "The Charlton Mackerell Jug Band":

"So in one week we, quite uniqely
topped the charts in the Farmers Weekly
Play your cows our rythym and blues, you'll
Get three times more milk than usual"

Anybody who can couple "blues, you'll" to "usual" in a song's lyrics is a master of his trade

jules wrote: I do recall having a beer in the huge Severn Salmon public house before it was demolished. It had obviously seen much better days (and customers). Just the size of the place suggested that when it was built, it must have been rocking most Friday / Saturday nights. Maybe even to the gentle tones of a certain Mr Cutler!

The Severn Salmon was built in the days in the 1930s when Severn Beach was a "holiday destination" and yes, I knew the pub bursting at the seams myself as late as the 1970s.

However, you have to be realistic. No matter how much you look at "The Beach" with rose-coloured glasses, it had a problem competing with the likes of Weston and Weymouth even in its heyday and, when cheap charter flights came along in the 1960s, its days as a "resort" were numbered.

But even before that it had become something of joke. I recall being at an Adge Cutler concert in the late 60s when, in the introduction to "Aloha Severn Beach" he said; "The person who sings loudest in the chorus gets a week's free holiday in Severn Beach. Anybody who doesn't sing at all gets two weeks"

When I worked the Beach line as a Bath Road guard, there was always trouble at the Severn Salmon on a Saturday night. I would watch the revellers spill out of the pub, cross the road and stagger drunkenly towards the platform,making a lot of noise in the process. I'd let them come within twenty yards of my train, then give the driver the "right away" and leave them shouting the odds on the platform.

I'd let them come within twenty yards of my train, then give the driver the "right away" and leave them shouting the odds on the platform.

Obviously before the days BR invented "customer care" then!

I quite agree about Adge Cutler's lyrical abilities - he did some great songs and I've always thought it rather sad what The Wurzels became after his untimely death.

The Severn Salmon was built in the days in the 1930s when Severn Beach was a "holiday destination" and yes, I knew the pub bursting at the seams myself as late as the 1970s.

Those were the days eh? I always remembered it because it was built to the stock Courage design of the 1930s estate pub. They were big, to accommodate all the heavy drinkers who had been moved out from the inner city, or so they thought ...

There were quite a few built to the basic design in Bristol and doubtless elsewhere. Springing to mind are The Progress in Sea Mills, The Good Intent in Broomhill, The Bulldog in Northville and The Eastfield in Henleaze. The Severn Salmon was probably the biggest example they ever built though.