Pixham Ferry.

Croome hunt crossing the Pixham Ferry, at Kempsy in the 1920’s.
Worked on a chain, this ferry took farm animals and waggons as well as small cars and lorries.
Here the Hunt crosses with the Earl and Lady Coventry. Max.

Pixham ferry farm was once an inn and port of call for the pleasure stamers “Severn Belle” and “Perseverance” on sundays as they made their way downstream from Worcester. The innkeeper, who was also the ferryman, had a coal wharfe here and frequently used donkeys to haul coal up river.

When the ferry ceased, some time before ww.2. it was then replaced by a rowing boat but was wrecked in the floods and never replaced. The inn was closed about a century ago.

Dog and Duck Ferry.

The Dog and Duck Ferry crossed the Severn from the West Side to pitchcroft. The ferry was accessed down “Ferry Bank” a steep path from Henwick Road between two white houses.
I seem to think the ferry was last used in the fifties.
An old friend of mine remembers his father crossing on the ferry, when walking to work in Worcester. He had to walk a distance of four and a half miles each way, from his home in Lower Broadheath.
The building on the right is a Toolmakers Workshop. When working at a Garage in Henwick Road, we took parts to be machined here; carrying them precariously down the hill, sometimes ending up in the river.
The dog and duck ferry was the busiest of all Worcester ferries not only transporting people but also cargoes for the Martley area.

Watergate Ferry.

The Watergate Ferry relaunched in 1983 after a gap of 20 years, is still in operation during the summer months. The ferry gives quick access between Worcester Cathedral and the St. Johns area.

Tablet set into wall near Watergate.

Keepax Ferry.

In earlier times, the Grammar School organised an annual swim from Keepax to Pitchcroft for its pupils.

Iced up Keepax.

Keepax 2005