Ferryside
Encyclopedia
Ferryside is a seaside village in Carmarthenshire
, Wales
. It is situated 8½ miles (14 km) south of Carmarthen
, near the mouth of the River Tywi
and close to golden sandy beaches.
Originating as a landing-place on the ferry route to Llansteffan
(the ferry was used by Giraldus Cambrensis
in 1188), it developed further as a fishing village and is now a popular place for retirement. Much of the village developed from the mid-nineteenth century, when in 1852 the village was linked to both Carmarthen and Swansea
by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
's South Wales Railway
.
Along with Laugharne, Ferryside was once at the heart of the cockling
industry
in Carmarthen Bay
. http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/CAR_CAU/CARMARTHENSHIRE.html Cocklewomen from Llansaint
could collect about 650 tons of cockle
s a year, and did so until around 1900. The cockle industry now experiences intermittent bursts of activity when the Ferryside cocklebeds are opened to commercial pickers: intensive 'strip-cockling' occurs and several hundred cockle-pickers work the estuary beds with tractors.
In 1993, Ferryside saw what are known locally as 'the cockle wars': fights between rival gangs on the beach, notably between gangs from the Gower Peninsula
, Liverpool
, the Dee estuary and Glasgow. In addition to gaining the village rare visibility on the front pages of national newspapers, the cockle wars led to a Parliamentary inquiry and calls for the beds to be licensed. The British cockling industry has surprisingly close links to gangland: the Ferryside cockle wars may be seen as a precedent to unsavoury incidents such as the 2004 Morecambe Bay
drowning of Chinese immigrant cocklers and turf wars at Newbiggin. Today, though, gangsters-in-wellies are infrequent visitors, and mainly oystercatcher
s and heron
s harvest the estuary
's famous bivalves. http://www.kidwelly.gov.uk/content/attract.htm
The village has a railway station
which has regular rail connections to London Paddington,Pembrooke Dock, Milford Haven, Carmarthen, Swansea, Cardiff, Crewe and Manchester Picadilly, regular buses between Carmarthen and Llanelli, a post office, a pub which has a beer garden and pool table, a yacht club, a sports and social club (previously the rugby club), a general store, and a hotel and caravan park which has a restaurant, gym and spa. It is also the home of the Ferrycabin a family run restaurant which serves locally caught fish and chips made from potatoes grown on the owners land and beef from their herd of Hereford cattle - well worth a visit if you are in the area. Ferryside is also the home of Tim Bowen Antiques specialist dealers in Welsh oak and country furniture. Until recently (spring 2009) the village also had an old fasioned newsagent store which sold sweets from jars, other confectionery, and did the local newspaper round (delivering several hundred papers every day). However, the opening of the general store coupled with the economic recession made it impossible for the newsagent to stay in business.
Notable ex-residents of the village include the General Sir Thomas Picton
(of Iscoed Mansion), a former governor of Trinidad
who died at the Battle of Waterloo
, Hugh Williams, the 19th century Chartist
lawyer who played a prominent role in the Rebecca Riots
and the portrait and landscape painter Gordon Stuart (five of whose portraits can be found at the National Portrait Gallery, including those of Kingsley Amis
, Dylan Thomas
and Huw Wheldon
).Lord Edgar Stephens is renovating a house within the village with the view of moving in sometime in 2012.
In 2006, the graveyard and grounds of the parish church
, St. Ishmael's, was selected for an innovative project aimed at encouraging biodiversity
in churchyard
s.
On 30 March 2005, Ferryside and Llanstephan became the first areas in the United Kingdom to lose their analogue television
signals. Residents of the Carmarthenshire villages - on either side of the River Tywi - voted to switch to digital after taking part in a pilot scheme.
Homes were given digital receivers for each of their televisions. A helpline was set up for residents' teething problems, and one-to-one support was made available to the elderly.
After three months, the households were asked if they wanted to keep the digital services or revert to analogue only. More than 85% of households responded and 98% voted to retain the digital services. Hence at the end of March 2005, the analogue channels, BBC One Wales, ITV1 and S4C, radiating from the Ferryside transmitter, were switched off leaving BBC Two Wales as the only analogue channel remaining. Viewers wanted to keep this channel because it provided certain programmes that the digital equivalent, BBC 2W, did not show.
, run by volunteers to bring news of local events and articles of local interest. Contact: editor@stish.org.uk or subeditor@stish.org.uk
The Ferryside Lifeboat represents a custom that stretches back more than one hundred and seventy years to 1835 when the first lifeboat was stationed in the village, just 11 years after Sir William Henry founded the RNLI in 1824. They currently operate from a lifeboat station on the foreshore of Ferryside constructed in 2010. This was opened by HRH The Duchess of Gloucester on 30 March 2010. The present lifeboat is a 5.85 metre Ribcraft semi-rigid infatable craft with twin 60 hp mariner four stroke engines, giving a top speed of approximately 30 knots. This lifeboat has reached the end of its ten year service life and will be replaced it with a newly constructed 6.4 metre Ribcraft semi rigid inflatable with twin 90 hp engines later this year.
Each year they receive on average around 28 call outs. This number is expected to rise due to the increase in pleasure craft use recently and in coming years.
The lifeboat is a voluntary service and registered charity. They rely wholly on donations received to keep the service going. You can visit the Ferryside Lifeboat website at www.ferryside-lifeboat.co.uk
Carmarthenshire
Carmarthenshire is a unitary authority in the south west of Wales and one of thirteen historic counties. It is the 3rd largest in Wales. Its three largest towns are Llanelli, Carmarthen and Ammanford...
, Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
. It is situated 8½ miles (14 km) south of Carmarthen
Carmarthen
Carmarthen is a community in, and the county town of, Carmarthenshire, Wales. It is sited on the River Towy north of its mouth at Carmarthen Bay. In 2001, the population was 14,648....
, near the mouth of the River Tywi
River Tywi
With a total length of the River Towy is the longest river flowing entirely within Wales, and is noted for its sea trout and salmon fishing.The river rises within of the Teifi on the lower slopes of Crug Gynan in the Cambrian Mountains and, flowing through the Towy Forest, forms the border...
and close to golden sandy beaches.
Originating as a landing-place on the ferry route to Llansteffan
Llansteffan
Llansteffan is a village in Carmarthenshire, Wales. Llansteffan is one of three settlements positioned on the Tywi river, other settlements include Ferryside and Carmarthen . Llansteffan Castle, built by the Normans in the 12th century, is located in the village...
(the ferry was used by Giraldus Cambrensis
Giraldus Cambrensis
Gerald of Wales , also known as Gerallt Gymro in Welsh or Giraldus Cambrensis in Latin, archdeacon of Brecon, was a medieval clergyman and chronicler of his times...
in 1188), it developed further as a fishing village and is now a popular place for retirement. Much of the village developed from the mid-nineteenth century, when in 1852 the village was linked to both Carmarthen and Swansea
Swansea
Swansea is a coastal city and county in Wales. Swansea is in the historic county boundaries of Glamorgan. Situated on the sandy South West Wales coast, the county area includes the Gower Peninsula and the Lliw uplands...
by Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel
Isambard Kingdom Brunel, FRS , was a British civil engineer who built bridges and dockyards including the construction of the first major British railway, the Great Western Railway; a series of steamships, including the first propeller-driven transatlantic steamship; and numerous important bridges...
's South Wales Railway
South Wales Railway
The South Wales Railway was a broad gauge railway that linked the Gloucester and Dean Forest Railway with Neyland in Wales.-History:The need for the railway was created by the need to ship coal from the South Wales Valleys to London, and secondly to complete Brunel's vision of linking London with...
.
Along with Laugharne, Ferryside was once at the heart of the cockling
Cockle (bivalve)
Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....
industry
Gathering seafood by hand
Gathering seafood by hand can be as easily as picking shellfish or kelp up off the beach, or doing some digging for clams or crabs, or perhaps diving under the water for abalone or lobsters....
in Carmarthen Bay
Carmarthen Bay
Carmarthen Bay is an inlet of the south Wales coast. The coastline includes famous beaches, including the Pendine Sands and Cefn Sidan sands, and is partially covered by the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park....
. http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/CAR_CAU/CARMARTHENSHIRE.html Cocklewomen from Llansaint
Llansaint
Llansaint is a village located in Carmarthenshire, Wales....
could collect about 650 tons of cockle
Cockle (bivalve)
Cockle is the common name for a group of small, edible, saltwater clams, marine bivalve molluscs in the family Cardiidae.Various species of cockles live in sandy sheltered beaches throughout the world....
s a year, and did so until around 1900. The cockle industry now experiences intermittent bursts of activity when the Ferryside cocklebeds are opened to commercial pickers: intensive 'strip-cockling' occurs and several hundred cockle-pickers work the estuary beds with tractors.
In 1993, Ferryside saw what are known locally as 'the cockle wars': fights between rival gangs on the beach, notably between gangs from the Gower Peninsula
Gower Peninsula
Gower or the Gower Peninsula is a peninsula in south Wales, jutting from the coast into the Bristol Channel, and administratively part of the City and County of Swansea. Locally it is known as "Gower"...
, Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, the Dee estuary and Glasgow. In addition to gaining the village rare visibility on the front pages of national newspapers, the cockle wars led to a Parliamentary inquiry and calls for the beds to be licensed. The British cockling industry has surprisingly close links to gangland: the Ferryside cockle wars may be seen as a precedent to unsavoury incidents such as the 2004 Morecambe Bay
drowning of Chinese immigrant cocklers and turf wars at Newbiggin. Today, though, gangsters-in-wellies are infrequent visitors, and mainly oystercatcher
Oystercatcher
The oystercatchers are a group of waders; they form the family Haematopodidae, which has a single genus, Haematopus. They are found on coasts worldwide apart from the polar regions and some tropical regions of Africa and South East Asia...
s and heron
Heron
The herons are long-legged freshwater and coastal birds in the family Ardeidae. There are 64 recognised species in this family. Some are called "egrets" or "bitterns" instead of "heron"....
s harvest the estuary
Estuary
An estuary is a partly enclosed coastal body of water with one or more rivers or streams flowing into it, and with a free connection to the open sea....
's famous bivalves. http://www.kidwelly.gov.uk/content/attract.htm
The village has a railway station
Ferryside railway station
Ferryside railway station serves the seaside village of Ferryside, Carmarthenshire. The station is unmanned and is a request stop, this means that if you are on the train you must advise the train manager that you wish to alight at Ferryside. Likewise if you wish to board the train you must...
which has regular rail connections to London Paddington,Pembrooke Dock, Milford Haven, Carmarthen, Swansea, Cardiff, Crewe and Manchester Picadilly, regular buses between Carmarthen and Llanelli, a post office, a pub which has a beer garden and pool table, a yacht club, a sports and social club (previously the rugby club), a general store, and a hotel and caravan park which has a restaurant, gym and spa. It is also the home of the Ferrycabin a family run restaurant which serves locally caught fish and chips made from potatoes grown on the owners land and beef from their herd of Hereford cattle - well worth a visit if you are in the area. Ferryside is also the home of Tim Bowen Antiques specialist dealers in Welsh oak and country furniture. Until recently (spring 2009) the village also had an old fasioned newsagent store which sold sweets from jars, other confectionery, and did the local newspaper round (delivering several hundred papers every day). However, the opening of the general store coupled with the economic recession made it impossible for the newsagent to stay in business.
Notable ex-residents of the village include the General Sir Thomas Picton
Thomas Picton
Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Picton GCB was a Welsh British Army officer who fought in a number of campaigns for Britain, and rose to the rank of lieutenant general...
(of Iscoed Mansion), a former governor of Trinidad
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
who died at the Battle of Waterloo
Battle of Waterloo
The Battle of Waterloo was fought on Sunday 18 June 1815 near Waterloo in present-day Belgium, then part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands...
, Hugh Williams, the 19th century Chartist
Chartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
lawyer who played a prominent role in the Rebecca Riots
Rebecca Riots
The Rebecca Riots took place between 1839 and 1843 in South and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to perceived unfair taxation. The rioters, often men dressed as women, took their actions against toll-gates, as they were...
and the portrait and landscape painter Gordon Stuart (five of whose portraits can be found at the National Portrait Gallery, including those of Kingsley Amis
Kingsley Amis
Sir Kingsley William Amis, CBE was an English novelist, poet, critic, and teacher. He wrote more than 20 novels, six volumes of poetry, a memoir, various short stories, radio and television scripts, along with works of social and literary criticism...
, Dylan Thomas
Dylan Thomas
Dylan Marlais Thomas was a Welsh poet and writer, Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 11 January 2008. who wrote exclusively in English. In addition to poetry, he wrote short stories and scripts for film and radio, which he often performed himself...
and Huw Wheldon
Huw Wheldon
Sir Huw Pyrs Wheldon OBE MC was a BBC broadcaster and executive.Wheldon was born in Prestatyn, Wales and educated at Friars School, Bangor. His father, Sir Wynn Wheldon, was a prominent educationalist, who had been awarded the DSO for gallantry in the First World War...
).Lord Edgar Stephens is renovating a house within the village with the view of moving in sometime in 2012.
In 2006, the graveyard and grounds of the parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
, St. Ishmael's, was selected for an innovative project aimed at encouraging biodiversity
Biodiversity
Biodiversity is the degree of variation of life forms within a given ecosystem, biome, or an entire planet. Biodiversity is a measure of the health of ecosystems. Biodiversity is in part a function of climate. In terrestrial habitats, tropical regions are typically rich whereas polar regions...
in churchyard
Churchyard
A churchyard is a patch of land adjoining or surrounding a church which is usually owned by the relevant church or local parish itself. In the Scots language or Northern English language this can also be known as a kirkyard or kirkyaird....
s.
Analogue television switch off
- For further information on Digital switchover in the United KingdomDigital switchover in the United KingdomDigital switchover is the name given to the process by which UK analogue broadcast television in an area is converted to digital television. It is sometimes referred to as "analogue switch off". For full details see UK Digital switchover....
.
On 30 March 2005, Ferryside and Llanstephan became the first areas in the United Kingdom to lose their analogue television
Analog television
Analog television is the analog transmission that involves the broadcasting of encoded analog audio and analog video signal: one in which the message conveyed by the broadcast signal is a function of deliberate variations in the amplitude and/or frequency of the signal...
signals. Residents of the Carmarthenshire villages - on either side of the River Tywi - voted to switch to digital after taking part in a pilot scheme.
Homes were given digital receivers for each of their televisions. A helpline was set up for residents' teething problems, and one-to-one support was made available to the elderly.
After three months, the households were asked if they wanted to keep the digital services or revert to analogue only. More than 85% of households responded and 98% voted to retain the digital services. Hence at the end of March 2005, the analogue channels, BBC One Wales, ITV1 and S4C, radiating from the Ferryside transmitter, were switched off leaving BBC Two Wales as the only analogue channel remaining. Viewers wanted to keep this channel because it provided certain programmes that the digital equivalent, BBC 2W, did not show.
STISH - Community Magazine
STISH is a monthly magazine by the St Ishmaels community for the villagers of Ferryside and LlansaintLlansaint
Llansaint is a village located in Carmarthenshire, Wales....
, run by volunteers to bring news of local events and articles of local interest. Contact: editor@stish.org.uk or subeditor@stish.org.uk
Ferryside Lifeboat
Ferryside Inshore Rescue is one of more than fifty independent lifeboats stationed around the British Isles that operate independently of the RNLI. They provide the same role as the RNLI and are "declared facilities" within HM Coastguard's search and rescue organisation. As a declared facility Ferryside Lifeboat is launched by HM Coastguard in response to ’999′ calls and distress calls on VHF CH16. At Ferryside, like most lifeboats operating in the Bristol Channel, they have to cope with a large tidal range, the second largest tidal rise and fall in the world makes these waters some of the most hostile in the world. Ferryside lifeboat is available 24 hours a day throughout the year and is staffed entirely by local volunteers. A smaller second lifeboat is also available at any state of the tide for mud and sandbank rescues.The Ferryside Lifeboat represents a custom that stretches back more than one hundred and seventy years to 1835 when the first lifeboat was stationed in the village, just 11 years after Sir William Henry founded the RNLI in 1824. They currently operate from a lifeboat station on the foreshore of Ferryside constructed in 2010. This was opened by HRH The Duchess of Gloucester on 30 March 2010. The present lifeboat is a 5.85 metre Ribcraft semi-rigid infatable craft with twin 60 hp mariner four stroke engines, giving a top speed of approximately 30 knots. This lifeboat has reached the end of its ten year service life and will be replaced it with a newly constructed 6.4 metre Ribcraft semi rigid inflatable with twin 90 hp engines later this year.
Each year they receive on average around 28 call outs. This number is expected to rise due to the increase in pleasure craft use recently and in coming years.
The lifeboat is a voluntary service and registered charity. They rely wholly on donations received to keep the service going. You can visit the Ferryside Lifeboat website at www.ferryside-lifeboat.co.uk