EAW051936 ENGLAND (1953). A boat on the Exeter Canal and the Countess Wear Bridge, Lower Wear, 1953. This image was marked by Aerofilms Ltd for photo editing.

Countess Wear Youth Hostel just off picture to the left.

Sing bridge control building.

Cafe come corner shop in 1950s.

Landing stage and mooring, used by ships/boats waiting for the bridge to open etc. Latterly used by Exeter University Rowing Club.

Not sure what the vessel is. It could be a small coastal oil tanker returning to the sea having delivered a cargo of petroleum products to Exeter Quay. Another traffic on the canal was the sludge boat that removed solids from the sewage works to dump at sea. This traffic stopped when the new sewage works was built just the the right (south) of the picture. There is very little, if any commercial traffic on the canal these days.

This house - I assume it was the bridge masters' house - stands where the second carriageway and the bascule bridge stand today. Indeed the bridge is still opened occasionally. In the last twenty years I have been through it once on a ship and for the first time last Saturday had to wait in a traffic queue for a ship to pass. There seems to be very little traffic for the 30th August, even in 1953. Soon this was to become one the well known bottle necks on the main road network. Such was the fascination with large amounts of traffic, that some people in Exeter would take a picnic and sit beside the road to watch the summer holiday makers passing by.

Lakeside Avenue

Leat

Countess Wear Infants School

Countess Wear Junior School

Swing Bridge

Topsham Road

Countess Wear Roundabout

Lower Wear Road

Now part of George V playing fields.

Caravan park

Glasshouse Lane