CLIFFE, Charles Frederick The book of South Wales, the Bristol Channel, Monmouthshire, and the Wye. A companion and guide to the railways, watering places, shores, scenery, antiquities, unexplored regions, mineral districts, towns, and other objects of interest throughout the Southern division of the principality: With a picture of Bristol. London, Hamilton Adams 1847
8vo. xvi + 318pp, 3 folding engraved maps, 6 engraved plates (2 folding). Wood-engraved text ills throughout. Publisher's cloth. Contains an illustration and description of a spectacular scheme to replace the Aust ferry across the Severn by a railway suspension bridge to consist of three main spans each with the enormous width of 1100 feet but with auxiliary trussing to stiffen the deck. The chains were to have been carried on handsome, romantic, gothic towers. Thomas Fulljames, its designer, was an architect/engineer and county surveyor to Gloucestershire. The scheme was approved by James Walker and although “it was abandoned owing to want of capital...we entertain no doubt that the government will ultimately construct this great public work”. The Aust ferry was only replaced in 1966 with the first Severn suspension bridge. The major source of information on Fulljames’s remarkable scheme.
£220
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