The Box is a major cultural and heritage attraction and archive, which opened in Plymouth’s city centre in September 2020. Its collection, formally the South West Film and Television Archive (SWFTA), is the regional film archive for the South West of England, comprising the combined programme libraries of Westward Television and Television South West (TSW). It also includes a significant number of donated film collections dating back to the early 1890s.
This film is part of Free

Paddle Steamer the Bristol Queen
The steam whistle sounds the ‘all aboard' for a coastal cruise from Cardiff to Weston-super-Mare
In partnership with:

Overview
TV reporter Terry Fleet is at Weston-super-Mare and reports on his journey from Cardiff across the Bristol Channel on the paddle steamer Bristol Queen. Launched with a Bristol Cream sherry bottle on 4 April 1946 by Lady Mayoress J Owen and built by Charles Hill and Sons of Bristol, its engines were made by Rankin and Blackmore of Greenock. Enthusiasm for paddle steamers matches that for steam trains; spewed black smoke is a Turneresque romantic doff to our industrial past.
Peter and Alexander Campbell set up the White Funnel fleet at Bristol in 1887 after PS Waverley was moved from the River Clyde in Scotland. By 1963 the company were trialling SRN2 hovercraft. After hitting Penarth Pier in 1966 and in 1967 damaging a paddle wheel, the Bristol Queen was taken out of service and the breaker's yard beckoned. The Paddle Steamer Preservation Society saved the PS Waverley which still operates in Scotland, on the Bristol Channel, the Thames and along the South Coast. Bob Campbell Senior was a captain operating on the Clyde and the Clyde River Steamer Club is keeper of the steam fleet memories. Friends of Turbine Steamship Queen Mary have saved the vessel for future generations.
Related

Weston Super Mare Holiday Report Weston Super Mare Holiday Report
News 1978 3 mins Location: Weston-super-Mare
It's Birmingham week at Weston super Mare as ATV go on the trail of Brummies in the South West.

A Spring Holiday A Spring Holiday
Home movie 1935 9 mins Silent Location: Evesham
A leisurely holiday to the South West of England via Evesham and Weston Super Mare.

The Weston-super-Mare Donkeys The Weston-super-Mare Donkeys
News 1964 1 mins Silent Location: Weston-super-Mare
Donkeys on the beach receive new hats for the summer season.

Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden visit the Westcountry Princess Margaret and Lord Snowden visit the Westcountry
News 1965 3 mins Silent Location: Weston-super-Mare
Earl and Countess Snowden have a go on a Butlins joyride.

Pier Construction Work, Weston-super-Mare Pier Construction Work, Weston-super-Mare
Non-Fiction 1907 2 mins Silent Location: Weston-super-Mare
A 500-yard extension to the Grand Pier in Weston-Super-Mare is underway as workers gather the new materials.

Somersetshire Dairy Farming Somersetshire Dairy Farming
1937 12 mins Location: Bleadon
Milky movie: close-up on Somerset's changing milk and cheese industry

If I Make It To The Morning If I Make It To The Morning
Drama 2024 9 mins
A Chinese teenager dreams of living with her cool aunt in New York, until tensions boil over during a crab dinner.

We’ll Go Down in History We’ll Go Down in History
Documentary 2025 25 mins
Two years in the life of TRUK United FC, a beacon for positive change and trans inclusivity in football.

Wrong Bathroom Wrong Bathroom
Drama 2024 9 mins
A trans high-schooler is tempted by toxic masculinity in the boys’ bathroom.

Dragfox Dragfox
Animation & Artists Moving Image 2024 8 mins
A child struggling with their identity and a charismatic fox (voiced by Sir Ian McKellen) learn to embrace their differences in this heart warming stop-motion animation.

Wait, Wait, Now! Wait, Wait, Now!
Drama 2024 13 mins
A Maori and a Kiwi teen buddy up to raid their mum’s wardrobe and pucker their lips with red.

NGGAK!!! NGGAK!!!
Drama 2024 8 mins
‘I pronounce you wife and wife.’ A young couple design their perfect wedding online, but then mum dials in.