Images of Industry

The Christopher Thomas was built by Henderson, Coulborn and Co. of Renfrew in 1864 for the Bristol and South Wales Union Railway, and was named after a prominent Bristol soap manufacturer who was the chairman of the company. The ‘Union’ company, as it was known, had a railway running from Bristol Temple Meads to New Passage, whence a ferry ran across the Severn to Portskewett; it also had a short branch from Portskewett to a junction with the main line from Gloucester to South Wales. The Christopher Thomas was one of three paddle ferries that provided the connecting service between the two lengths of railway, and gave sterling service for over twenty years until the Severn Tunnel was opened in 1888.  She ended her days on a river in West Africa in 1902.