Built in 1901 for H.G Bryant of Bridgwater, as one of the last wooden Chepstow Trows by William Hurd, Edith was originally 44 Net registered and just short of 75ft. She was built as a ketch rigged open decked trow which encapsulated side clothes. This configuration was further improved in 1918 with the construction of a boxed deck for greater safety and which allowed her to carry 78 Gross ton from her Bridgwater port of registry to various destinations including Newport, Cardiff, Lydney and Bristol docks.

Although as we will see, Edith was destined to have a long, albeit eventful life, she became no stranger to catastrophe. An early incident is recorded in a Harbour Trustee log of 25th April 1903. in which the engineer reported …”Went with boat, men and gear to Hills Flats to erect beacon which had been knocked down by the trow “Edith”….

Not content with that, The Edith once again found herself in peril for on the 13th July 1903, whilst under the command of Captain M. Warren from Bridgwater, she collided with the landing stage at Brean Down Quarries during a raging storm and turned completely on her side.

Subsequently and upon recovery and repair at Bridgwater she was once again in distress on the 8th July 1914 as she ran aground on the bank opposite the site of the Bridgwater Hospital, but as luck would have it she re-floated off without damage on the same evening tide. However, within two years, she was once again in the thick of it along with Ark and Palace who on the 28th March 1916 at 15pm were aided by the Weston Life boat.

Undeterred and upon the coming of mechanisation, Edith was duly unrigged and motorised with a 30 B.H.P paraffin engine in 1927 by Daniel Gower of Bute Street Cardiff and re-registered as a motorised trow in the 1928 Mercantile Navy list.

1928 saw Edith in the ownership of Renwick Wilton & Co. who employed her to transport Lydney coal to its Bristol factory. Indeed it had been discovered that her rigid construction suited this trade, and she thus continued to be a frequent visitor between the Severn ports of Lydney, Bristol, Chepstow and Bridgwater, carrying coal until 1950.

In 1951 we can see, via her Mercantile Navy listing, that Edith was now in the ownership of the Bristol based and newly amalgamated Renwick Wilton & Dobson Ltd, whose head offices were located at 55 Fleet St, Torquay, under the directorship of Fredrick C. Dobson. At this time, she continued in the Bridgwater register as being 74.6ft x 17.1ft, with a 5.7ft hold of 80 Gross ton as powered by her faithful 60 B.H.P engine.

Once again, disaster was to strike the little motor vessel which was reportedly struck and sank in eight minutes after a collision in Avonmouth Dock on 20th April 1953. Her crew of two however managed to get away in Edith’s jolly boat. She was subsequently recovered and stitched back together.

Undeterred in 1955 and following an extensive career spanning 28 years the Edith’s twin engines were replaced with a specially commissioned K.2. Twin Kelvin built by George Burgius Co. Ltd. of Glasgow and bearing the serial No. 754. This engine in turn continued to provide propulsion to Edith, who at this time, had continued to lead an active life within the coal trade of Ely, Cardiff, Newport and Lydney Docks to St. Anne’s Board Mills in Bristol with Capt. Reg Hopkins being her last skipper.

The 1960s were not happy times for commercial wooden craft as they were rapidly becoming a burden of spiralling maintenance costs and lost freight to the then developing road and rail industry. That being the case, 1960 saw Edith registered as unwanted and finally acquired by Smiths of Bristol, whose elderly fleet also included the wooden trows William, Alma, Spry, Superb & Emperor and put her to work in Bristol Docks as a motorised coal lighter.

1962-63 sounded the death knoll for Edith, as she failed to obtain a certificate of conformity from the Board of Trade and Industry, a legal requirement and thereafter, spent her last days afloat as a pontoon threatening to sink at her mooring at Pil. It was at this time, her pristine K.2. engine was salvaged by a Frampton Cottrell scrap dealer and stored in barn until 1992, whereupon it was bought and restored by Tony & Pauline Bolton to serve, from 1993 to 2000, in their canal boat Albion. This engine can still be seen as it now, following the purchase by Alan & Barbara Eales in 2000, providing propulsion to their canal boat Rooster.

With her engine now gone, it only remained a matter of time before Edith became a worthless hulk, which indeed she became and subsequently made her last trip up the Avon and Severn to the foreshore at Purton to conduct one last valuable service in the form of bank protection. The exact date of this journey as of yet escapes the author, however it is known that the Edith was still afloat in September 1962 on the Avon and thereafter noted to be on the foreshore by David Wheeler, who drew a stylised diagram of the Purton Hulks in 1965.

It is also known, that the scuttling of the Edith was carried out using the tried and tested method of towing her up from Bristol to Sharpness on a high spring tide and handing her over the Sharpness Dock Company, who in turn assigned the task to Captain Frank Savage and his crew of the Tug Primrose, which included Mr Eric Aldridge and Mr Doug Monday who were put on board Edith in order to steer her during the beaching process.

This was achieved by the tug and hulk leaving Sharpness twenty minutes before high water in order to arrive on site at precisely the maximum height of tide, and thus, with the use of a head of speed ram Edith up onto the foreshore. This was then followed with selection of permanent moorings from which purchase could be obtained using the hulks own winches and subsequently drive the vessel higher up the bank and free from the pull of the falling tide. The beaching was finally made permanent upon the retreat of the rivers water by the deliberate destruction of hull timbers, which in turn further prevented floatation and aided sedimentation upon the next incoming tide. This was all done by Dock Company employees who were paid a princely sum of 17 hours pay for the task of site selection, mooring and holing the vessel and all on a job and finish basis.

The Edith today, following 47 years of trophy hunters, scrap metal merchants, arsonists BBQ enthusiasts, beach combers and the ravages of south westerly’s within the Severn Estuary, has faired poorly considering she is one of the younger vessels than can be found upon the bank. This however is a direct result of mindless vandalism and acute stupidity that one would usually associate with a below average intelligence, who in turn has obtained a simpletons pleasure of watching this historic vessel burn to the swathe.