Images in this collection
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The old Coalport ferry boat
Press cutting, undated
This press cutting, its exact date unknown, reproduces an old photograph of the Coalport ferry boat alongside a short descriptive caption, likely from a local book or newspaper feature. Clippings like this were often how living memory of the ferries first found its way into print, decades after the boats themselves stopped running.
Press cutting
Joseph Crowell's ferry agreement
April 1890
Dated April 1890, this handwritten agreement by Joseph Crowell concerns the lease of the Coalport ferry boat, and is a rare survival of the everyday paperwork behind a river crossing. Documents like this are scarce precisely because ferrying was such an informal trade, rarely thought worth recording in writing at all.
Manuscript, private collection
The newsletter map as published
February 2010
This is the map as it originally appeared in the Broseley Local History Society newsletter of February 2010, showing the historic river crossings set against the positions of the later bridges. Newsletter publications like this one have quietly preserved a great deal of local ferry history that might otherwise have been lost.
Broseley Local History Society newsletter, February 2010
“Memories of the old ferry”
8 November 2001
Published in the Shropshire Star on 8 November 2001, this feature gathers readers' own memories of the Benthall Edge ferry, including recollections of George Beddoes working the wire rope and fares of just a ha'penny each way. Oral history pieces like this preserved details of the ferry's daily operation that no photograph alone could capture.
Shropshire Star, 8 November 2001
“Throwing light on grand old hall”
18 April 2002
This Shropshire Star article from 18 April 2002 focuses on the history of the Grand Hall, but includes a passing reference to the Benthall Edge ferry dating back to 1929. Such incidental mentions in unrelated local news stories often turn out to be valuable, overlooked sources for piecing together ferry history.
Shropshire Star, 18 April 2002
“Peace and tranquillity on river at Buildwas”
18 July 2003
Published on 18 July 2003, this Shropshire Star feature on the peaceful river at Buildwas describes a rowing boat hired from Mr Beddoes, a name closely tied to the ferrying families of the Gorge. It shows the ferry tradition, in a reduced pleasure-boating form, still lingering in local memory well into the 21st century.
Shropshire Star, 18 July 2003