BEFORE the construction of the Cleddau Bridge – as recalled in last week’s Western Telegraph – the only way that the north and south shorelines of the Haven were linked was through the Neyland to Pembroke Dock ferry service.

Archive photographs via the Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre feature a fondly-remembered chapter in Pembrokeshire’s recent history.

Under a mile of water separates the Haven towns of Neyland and Pembroke Dock, but the road journey to each community stretches for nearly 30 miles, via Haverfordwest, Canaston Bridge, Cresselly and Carew.

So, the Hobbs Point slipway at Pembroke Dock – where Pembroke Dockyard warships were once fitted out – and the floating pontoon and ramp on the Neyland side, were very familiar to generations of people who needed to cross the Haven regularly. Ferries by the name of Amy, Pioneer and Menai carried passengers in earlier days.

Keeping up with the times when more and more motor vehicles were in use, a car ferry service began in the 1920s and in 1933 there arrived two contrasting vessels whose names would soon become part of local folklore.

The Lady Magdalen was a conventional vessel with twin screws while Alumchine – built at Queensferry, North Wales, a decade earlier – was a coal-fired steam paddler. Both served locally for over 30 years. Efforts were made to save Alumchine for preservation but these failed and she was scrapped in 1962. The Magdalen was, apparently, sold for passenger use on the Clyde.

Hancocks, the Pembroke Dock shipbulders, were commissioned by Pembrokeshire County Council to build a new generation of ferries – firstly, the Cleddau Queen which entered service in the mid-1950s and then the Cleddau King, the last of the line. These soldiered on until 1975, their working lives extended because of the Cleddau Bridge collapse and subsequent re-building.

After the Haven, the Cleddau King went to Northern Ireland where – with a ramp now fitted on both bow and stern - she worked a ferry service on Strangford Lough. The Cleddau Queen is believed to have found a new role on the Thames.

Pictures from Pembroke Dock Heritage Centre Archive and the Ken Edwards Collection.