Beachley
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Beachley is a village in Gloucestershire, England, near the border with Wales. It is located on a peninsula at the junction between the Rivers Wye and Severn, where the Severn Bridge ends and the smaller secondary bridge for the River Wye begins, at grid reference ST552910. The tidal drop here is one of the highest in the UK. Before the construction of the bridge it was a ferry port from where the Beachley Ferry to Aust operated until 1966.
Just after the end of World War I, the government established an Army Apprentice College at Beachley to ensure a core of technical qualified soldiers with excellent technical education combined with first class military training as potential NCOs and officers mainly for the specialist corps Royal Engineers and REME. The college was situated on the edge of the River Wye. The army has now converted this to an infantry barracks.
The old ferry slipway is now used by the Severn Area Rescue Association, whose lifeboat station is next to the slipway. SARA has been running for over 30 years and it is believed to be the second largest UK lifeboat association (the first being the RNLI). SARA is staffed entirely by volunteers.
A major electricity pylon runs over the river at Beachley to Aust. A tunnel also runs under the River Severn between Beachley and Aust carrying electric cables.
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| Settlements on the River Severn between Gloucester and Bristol (heading downstream) | edit | |
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Gloucester | Minsterworth | Newnham | Frampton | Sharpness | Lydney | Berkeley | Shepperdine | Oldbury | Chepstow | Beachley | Aust | Bristol |
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