Briton Ferry Floating Dock
In the 1850s the Briton Ferry Floating Dock Company was incorporated, and bought land from the Earl of Jersey to build the Briton Ferry Docks. When it opened in 1861, the dock consisted of an outer basin which was tidal, and an inner floating dock, where the water level was maintained by a single gate, which included a buoyancy chamber. It covered an area of 181 acres (73 ha). The gate was 56 feet (17 m) wide, and the unique structure with its floating caisson was designed by Brunel's father, Sir Marc Brunel. Following Brunel's death in 1859, Robert Brereton took over as engineer, and also acted as engineer for improvements made in 1872 and 1873. The company later went bankrupt and the Great Western Railway took over the docks as a going concern. After World War II many warships were scrapped there, until the dock was closed in 1959. As part of a regeneration programme, a tower, which formed part of the complex, has been refurbished. It was an accumulator tower for the hydraulic system which operated the dock gate and cranes. The system was designed by William Armstrong, and in 2010, the Institute of Civil Engineers unveiled a plaque at the site to commemorate the 200th anniversary of his birth.
"Giants Grave" is a folk song written by Huw Pudner and Chris Hastings about the shipbreaking industry at the Briton Ferry Docks. The chorus says
- "And me and my old pals
- With our hammers and spanners
- We'd take out the fittings
- We'd work until late
- From Lisbon to Lagos
- From Belfast to Boston
- We'd salvage the cable
- Steel rivets and plate"
The shipbreaking of WW2 ships, for example HMS Bermuda, took place at Giants Grave upstream of the floating dock, and north of the M4 and A48.
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Famous quotes containing the words ferry, floating and/or dock:
“And my eyes are blue;
So ferry me across the water,
Do, boatman, do!”
“Step into my ferry-boat,
Be they black or blue,”
—Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830–1894)
“It is only for a little while, only occasionally, methinks, that we want a garden. Surely a good man need not be at the labor to level a hill for the sake of a prospect, or raise fruits and flowers, and construct floating islands, for the sake of a paradise. He enjoys better prospects than lie behind any hill. Where an angel travels it will be paradise all the way, but where Satan travels it will be burning marl and cinders.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“You turn
To speak to someone beside the dock and the lighthouse
Shines like garnets. It has become a stricture.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)