Severn Beach is a village on the Severn Estuary in

South Gloucestershire South Gloucestershire is a unitary authority area in the ceremonial county of Gloucestershire, South West England. Towns in the area include Yate, Chipping Sodbury, Thornbury, Filton, Patchway and Bradley Stoke, the latter three forming ...

, England. The eastern portal of the Severn Tunnel is on the outskirts of the village. The Severn footpathon the sea wallis part of the Severn Way that leads from

Gloucester Gloucester ( ) is a cathedral city and the county town of Gloucestershire in the South West of England. Gloucester lies on the River Severn, between the Cotswolds to the east and the Forest of Dean to the west, east of Monmouth and east o ...

Slimbridge Slimbridge is a village and civil parish near Dursley in Gloucestershire, England. It is best known as the home of the Wildfowl and Wetlands Trust's Slimbridge Reserve which was started by Sir Peter Scott. Canal and Patch Bridge The Glouces ...

and the Second Severn Crossing. Extensive sea defences have been constructed and this provides a popular walkway along its length. Originally, the Severn Way finished at Severn Beach, but it has been extended to

Bristol Bristol () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, Bristol, River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Glouces ...

. The village is part of the Filton and Bradley Stoke Parliamentary constituency and is represented by the Conservative MP, Jack Lopresti.

History

Before the

Great Western Railway The Great Western Railway (GWR) was a British railway company that linked London with the southwest, west and West Midlands of England and most of Wales. It was founded in 1833, received its enabling Act of Parliament on 31 August 1835 and ran ...

arrived in 1900, the area was farmland. In 1922, the village became a

seaside resort A seaside resort is a town, village, or hotel that serves as a vacation resort and is located on a coast. Sometimes the concept includes an aspect of official accreditation based on the satisfaction of certain requirements, such as in the Germa ...

with a swimming pool called the "Blue Lagoon", a boating lake, dozens of fun-fair stalls, donkey rides (on grass), mostly by local entrepreneur Robert Stride. Many people came from nearby

because Severn Beach had less strict licensing laws. The Beach Comber club appeared in the 1960s Robert Charles Barton Stride 1894-1970, son of Albert and Alice Stride. Albert's father George was the brother of Edmund Stride who was involved in the construction of Avonmouth docks and housing. His sons Jared and Jethro Stride were the original ‘Stride Brothers’ who built one-off luxury houses in Sneyd Park, Bristol. Robert lived next door to his cousins Jared and Jethro in Shirehampton. Robert enlisted in WW1 and was a driver, driving a range of vehicles including ambulances. Like many other Strides in Shirehampton Robert was a builder by trade. After the war ended he resumed trading. With the opening of the rail link from Avonmouth in 1924 Robert Stride moved his operations from his house in Station Road, Shirehampton, to Severn Beach, and built a restaurant and six shops opposite the tennis courts. He bought up surplus material from the remount depot in Shirehampton which had closed at the end of the war. He re-used much of this in his buildings at Severn Beach. The swimming pool was built by Robert and he also built Osborne Road, Beach Road and Beach Avenue, laying out a putting green, boating lake and miniature railway. During the 1930s he installed electricity for all. He was Parish Councillor for 26 years between 1937 and 1964. His family were staunch Methodists and were involved with the Methodist church in Shirehampton. His brother Horatio was a keen supporter of

Toc H Toc H (also TH) is an international Christian movement. The name is an abbreviation for Talbot House, "Toc" signifying the letter T in the signals spelling alphabet used by the British Army in World War I. A soldiers' rest and recreation centr ...

. Robert's daughter (Mrs Turner) taught at Severn Beach Primary School (in Pilning). With its era as a holiday and pleasure resort ending in the 1970s, many of the shops have also closed; however, the convenience store and Down's Bakery still trade. Severn Beach had a dedicated Post Office at 103 Beach Road but this also closed and a small Post Office is now housed a few doors away at the McColl's convenience store. The village pub (Severn Salmon, formerly Severn Beach Hotel) was demolished to make way for housing. The Blue Lagoon swimming pool was demolished in the 1980s in favour of creating more open space and some housing plus part purchased by Northavon District Council to act as a sea defence when over-topping occurs from the River Severn. It was during this time that all the railway station buildings were demolished to make way for new housing leaving just the platform. The station is now unmanned, with a ticket machine on the platform. The boating lake has been filled in and landscaped and now forms part of the sea defence known as Sea Wall Gardens. Public toilets that were built on Beach Road during its heyday as a pleasure resort are still there but are locked overnight. A new sea front Tea Cottage opened in 2018 on the site of the old Burger Bar and its associated children's fun rides.

Second Severn Crossing

The Severn Bridges Visitor Centre was opened in 1998 following the completion of the Second Severn Crossing at the end of Shaft Road, off Green Lane. Run by the Severn Bridges Trust and housing an exhibition showing the history of the river crossings using interactive displays, video films, pictures, models and descriptions, it closed in 2008.

Ecology

The coastline at Severn Beach is a

Site of Special Scientific Interest A Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) in Great Britain or an Area of Special Scientific Interest (ASSI) in the Isle of Man and Northern Ireland is a conservation designation denoting a protected area in the United Kingdom and Isle ...

and has a diverse range of wildlife, varying from

seals Seals may refer to: * Pinniped, a diverse group of semi-aquatic marine mammals, many of which are commonly called seals, particularly: ** Earless seal, or "true seal" ** Fur seal * Seal (emblem), a device to impress an emblem, used as a means of a ...

peregrine falcon The peregrine falcon (''Falco peregrinus''), also known as the peregrine, and historically as the duck hawk in North America, is a cosmopolitan bird of prey (raptor) in the family Falconidae. A large, crow-sized falcon, it has a blue-grey bac ...

s. There have been more than 281 species of bird recorded in the Severn Beach area and it is of international importance for migrating and wintering birds. As of 1990, 31 species of

seabird Seabirds (also known as marine birds) are birds that are adapted to life within the marine environment. While seabirds vary greatly in lifestyle, behaviour and physiology, they often exhibit striking convergent evolution, as the same envir ...

had been recorded in the Severn Beach/

New Passage New Passage is a hamlet in South Gloucestershire, England, on the banks of the Severn estuary near the village of Pilning. It takes its name from the ferry service which operated between there and South Wales until 1886. Ferry History New ...

area, including 3 Petrel species including the first British record of White Bellied/Black Bellied Petrel, 4 species of Diver including Pacific Diver,

sooty Sooty is a British children's television media franchise created by Harry Corbett incorporating primarily television and stage shows. The franchise originated with his fictional glove puppet character introduced to television in 1955, with the ...

and Balearic shearwaters, all four Northern Hemisphere skuas, seven species of tern and five species of alcid. Severn Beach offers excellent conger fishing from the shore in the winter.

Transport

The village is at the terminus of the Severn Beach line railway, with a small unstaffed station. The line used to loop northwards to join the main Cardiff to Bristol line at

Pilning railway station Pilning railway station is a minor station on the South Wales Main Line near Pilning, South Gloucestershire, England. It is from and is the last station on the English side before the Severn Tunnel through to Wales. Its three letter station ...

in the direction of Bristol, but this section was closed in 1964 and the trackbed has been built over. Train services are operated by

; 11 trains per weekday with an average journey time between Severn Beach and Bristol Temple Meads of 41 minutes. The fastest journey time is 36 minutes. The village is close to the A403 road that runs from junction 1 of the M48 motorway at Aust to the docks at Avonmouth. Severn Beach with substantial development at Western Approach and new energy recovery centres on the main Severn Road (A403), is now a very busy area with heavy traffic which will be somewhat relieved of congestion when the new M49 junction at Farm Lane (located to the south of the Western Approach Distribution Park and west of the village of Easter Compton) is opened in late 2019/early 2020. The village is currently once again served by buses by Stagecoach West going via Pilning, Easter Compton, Cribbs Causeway,

Little Stoke Little Stoke is a village in the parish of Stoke Gifford, situated in South Gloucestershire, England. It is surrounded by Patchway, Stoke Gifford and Bradley Stoke. Home to Patchway railway station, a minor stop on the railway network, the rail ...

Bristol Parkway station Bristol Parkway, on the South Wales Main Line, is in the Stoke Gifford area in the northern suburbs of the Bristol conurbation. It is from London Paddington. The station was opened in 1972 by British Rail, and was the first in a new generat ...

to the

University of the West of England The University of the West of England (also known as UWE Bristol) is a public research university, located in and around Bristol, England. The institution was know as the Bristol Polytechnic in 1970; it received university status in 1992 and ...

Campus.

Education

Primary education is provided by Severn Beach Primary School at Ableton Lane, Severn Beach. There are no senior schools in Severn Beach.

References

{{Severn from Gloucester to Bristol Seaside resorts in England Villages in South Gloucestershire District Populated places on the River Severn