I was intrigued by the letter from John Powell in the letters page of the Chepstow Review (23-12-11) asking for memories of salmon fishing at Beachley.

While I don't know all that much about the fishing at Beachley I do remember the putchers below Aust cliffs on the other side of the river where, as boys, we used to hunt the rock pools for flounders at low tide. Once, going too close to the putchers, we were shot at from the top of the cliff and didn't wait around to see who was firing!

I remember Beachley for quite a different reason, since I had schoolfriends in the Forest of Dean by reason of Forest ex-miners moving to this area to work the Bristol coalfields. Before the first road bridge was built the journey across to Beachley slipway by ferry was always very special and never the same twice because of shifting sandbanks in the river.

We took our bikes with us, and it was quite a long ride to get to the Forest for a night's camping: a big adventure!

Good luck to John Powell and his fishing book which I am looking forward to reading.

– Peter Greenly, Thornbury.