PEZPH : 1990.312.15 - Penlee House

Photograph

Acc.no: PEZPH : 1990.312.15

Identification

Item: Fowey: Bodinnick Ferry. Cornwall.

Description: The Bodinnick Ferry from the Bodinnick side of the river towards Caffa Mill Pill on the Fowey side, with the Railway Hotel (Riverside Hotel) to the left, Caffa Mill Pill in the centre of the photograph and clay wagons to the right. Until the introduction of mail coaches in the early 19th century, Bodinnick Ferry was on the main post route from Plymouth to Falmouth. The 19th century mail coaches used the Torpoint chain ferry and took an inland route via Liskeard, Lostwithiel and St Austell. The ferry formerly used a narrow slipway at Fowey. In c.1930, Miss Clapham of the Ferry House Inn inherited a ferry and introduced motor boats to propel it. She promoted the ferry for motor vehicles. In 1977, the Fowey landing for the ferry was moved up river to Caffa Hill Pill which had been filled in as a boat park and slipway.. The Ferryside at Bodinnick (where Daphne Du Maurier lived) was a former shipyard site.