The Medina River chain ferry was built to cross the Medina river on the Isle of Wight and operated between 1896 and 1909. Dubbed a ‘Floating Bridge’ it was built by William White and Sons at the Vectis Works in Cowes in 1896. The image below shows the vessel in its prime c.1903 (image courtesy www.simplonpc.co.uk)
It appeared in Forton Lake in 1948 after years of private ownership where it was gradually broken down and parts used in other vessels.
It was originally surveyed by our partners at the NAS as part of the Forton Lake Archaeology Project ([http://www.nauticalarchaeologysociety.org/content/forton-lake-community-archaeology-project]) from which the information above has been gathered.
This model was created from an aerial survey undertaken in October 2016 by CITiZAN and Stuart Fitt.
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