36 replies to this topic

[vinty]

How many Connect members crossed the Mersey using this Bridge.


http://www.britishpa...o/a-queer-ferry

Hope this new link works

Edited by vinty, 04 February 2012 - 01:50 PM.

[Alan]

Loved it as a kid. Bus to Widnes, cross river on Transporter Bridge then bus to Frodsham. Happy days

[leschip]

I remember the transporter, but how much did it cost to cross on foot or by car??

[vinty]

Here is a Link to when it closed and the New bridge opened which itself is now inadequate for todays traffic so yet another bridge will be built soon.

http://www.britishpa...ss-opens-bridge

[Alan]

A little anecdote about the "new" bridge. I worked at a place called Polycell Ceramics at Penketh when the bridge was being built. One of the lasses I worked with came to work in a 1930s Ford Popular. When she saw the superstructure archway over the river in the distance she got quite upset that her car wouldn't make it up such a steep incline

[nb from rome]

Why was that bridge built like that? All the trouble they went to to build the basic structure couldn't they have built it lower and turned that into a bridge, maybe opening in the middle to let ships pass?
As I write this, i know it will be a stupid question...........

[leschip]

Alan, there's an old thread about "going over the top" Was Polycell down Tannery Lane going towards the Ferry pub??

[Alan]

Yes, it was built on the old Penketh Tannery site. Many of the old tanning sheds and pits still remained when I worked there. In fact when I last looked in about 2002 the whole Polycell site still stood there, derelict and vandalised but still there

[leschip]

It's all houses now, Alan. You wouldn't know that there had been any factories in the area. Don't know if anyone else remembers that a lady was murdered on the site in the late eighties/early nineties. No one has ever been bought to book for the crime.

[Alan]

That factory ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week and employed around 500 people. The tiles were peerless in their day in that the glazed surface was always in compression and therefore "craze" resistant. They were made by pouring three separate "slips" (body, engobe and glaze) onto a porous "setter" and then fired in long tunnel kilns with the "setters" being recycled. The process was heavily patented and many of the management and technical staff were imported from the Potteries

[SKYMAN]

IT used to be a regular ride by cycle in our teens,
you couldnt get many cars on the transporter ,when we got off at Runcorn
it was like landing in another country,then it was away to frodsham.
quite a ride from STHelens,

[tessmop]

As a child on a coach going to Prestatyn I also thought from a distance that the coach would be going up it,I can laugh now at it,but it was scary at the time.

[kizzy]

I hate that bridge with a vengeance and will drive miles to avoid using it. Firstly I always end up in Widnes shopping centre.. and if there's a place worse that that to get out of then I'd like to hear about it! Secondly I get nervous If I catch sight of the water beneath and I'm convinced one day I'll break down in the middle of the thing and hold up all the traffic and finally Towyn is one of the places at the other of it

[tessmop]

Skelmersdale comes close,a while back the sign saying other destinations was a very popular place full of people who were lost,also it's got to be the place with the most roundabouts.

[the olden days]

About 64 years ago we used to cycle to Widnes and get on this transporter bridge which had about three quarters of it for cars and the rest was covered in like at long bus shelter and we could go on their with our bikes or just pedestrians crossing over.

We then used to cycle around Halton, Helsby, Frodsham etc., and buy anything such as apples or strawberries on sale at the roadside.

Rationing was still on so goodies like these were very welcome.