This film is part of Free

South Devon and the Dartmouth Higher Ferry

The Dartmouth-Kingswear floating bridge is a centuries-old ferry crossing for locals and holidaymakers.

Non-Fiction 1964 7 mins Silent

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Overview

Eric Lynex is the amateur filmmaker showing his family holiday to Torcross. The Dartmouth Higher Ferry operates between Dartmouth near the Dart Marina Hotel and Kingswear near the Floating Bridge Inn. The crossing forms part of the largely coastal A379 road between Exeter via Torbay to Plymouth. The family visits the fishing village of Brixham and the replica of Sir Francis Drake’s ship The Golden Hind.

In 1828 a civil engineer from Devon James Meadows Rendel and Plymouth architect John Foulston designed a suspension bridge to be built across the river Dart between Dittisham and Greenway but the idea was abandoned due to local opposition in favour of a ferry or the Dartmouth Floating Bridge. The ferry is owned and operated by the Dartmouth-Kingswear Floating Bridge Company. In June 2009 a new ferry built by Falmouth’s Pendennis Shipyard went into service with an official Naval escort. It can carry up to 32 cars and 250 passengers. The ferry has hydraulic bull wheels which pulls it along four thrusters and can simultaneously load and disembark. Dartmouth also operates a Lower Ferry and a passenger ferry.