Twelve passengers, a pair of oars and 73 metres of river. The Walberswick ferry is the short way between Southwold's harbour and the village on the south bank; the Bailey Bridge upstream is the long way, and it is the one the national trail uses.
2026 daily season, Monday 30 March to Sunday 1 November 2026, as published by the operator and read on 1 October 2026. Nothing after 1 November had been published on that date. Walberswick Ferry — ferry information, opening hours 2026 · 2026-10-01
The Bailey Bridge is how the King Charles III England Coast Path crosses the River Blyth, and it is there all year round. The rowing boat about 1.6 kilometres downstream is not — yet by Natural England's own figure it saves around 2 kilometres of walking. When Natural England laid the national trail through this corner of East Suffolk, it weighed the ferry and chose the bridge: the boat keeps seasonal hours, and getting in and out of a small row-boat is awkward for anyone unsteady on their feet. The ferry stays open to walkers on its own terms, just not on the waymarked line.
For 2026 those terms are short. The Walberswick Ferry rows daily between 10:00 and 17:00 until Sunday 1 November, crossing whenever passengers turn up, for £2.50 an adult in cash. The boats are wooden, modelled on the Suffolk punt, and take a dozen people at a time; on a rough day or a very crowded one, a motor launch stands in.
It is a family firm in the plainest sense. Dani, who runs it, is the fifth generation of her family on the crossing, full time since 2001, when she took over from her late father, David Church, and she works it with a team of rowers. Walberswick Ferry Company Ltd holds its licence from East Suffolk Council — the same council that, as harbour authority for Southwold, tells every skipper on the river that the rowing ferry has right of way at all times.
Every price is for a single crossing and every price is paid in cash, because the ferry has no way of taking a card. An adult pays £2.50, anyone under 18 pays £1, and children under five cross free. Wheel a bicycle aboard and the fare becomes a flat £4 for an adult or £2 for a child. Dogs, buggies and pushchairs are welcomed, with no charge listed for any of them.
One caveat: only the operator publishes these figures. A local directory prints the same numbers, but no council or National Landscape leaflet has a 2026 list to compare them with. They are up on last year, when an adult crossed for £2 according to both the operator's archived page and the National Landscape's 2025 foot-ferry leaflet.
| Adult | £ 2.50 |
| Child, 5 to 17 | £ 1 |
| Child under 5 | Free |
| Adult plus bicycle | £ 4 |
| Child plus bicycle | £ 2 |
Fares listed under the operator's 2026 opening hours, unchanged on its page since at least March 2026 and read on 1 October 2026 Walberswick Ferry — ferry information, prices · 2026-10-01
Southwold Harbour is the Blyth's last stretch, a canalised channel held between the North and South Piers, which squeeze the entrance to between 30 and 40 metres. The ferry works about three cables — roughly 550 metres — inside that entrance, across a river Natural England measures at 73 metres wide at this point and 41 metres between the two jetties. East Suffolk Council has warning signs 100 metres to each side of the crossing and asks every skipper to pass slowly with as little wash as possible, reminding them that a following tide affects how quickly a boat can stop. The Bailey Bridge stands about 1.6 kilometres from the harbour mouth, which is where the walk round gets its extra distance.
The Southwold landing sits on the north bank at the harbour end of Ferry Road, a short walk in from the harbour mouth; the operator's directions amount to nothing more than driving or walking down that road until you reach the water. This is the busy bank. Natural England's survey of the estuary lists the harbour master's office, moorings, the Harbour Inn, a café, a chandlery and small shops selling fresh fish and seafood, and notes that the north-east bank is a favourite crabbing spot in summer.
East Suffolk Council runs the car parks on this side. Harbour Quay Central and Harbour Quay East, postcode IP18 6TA, are the ones beside the river; the Ferry Road car park, IP18 6HQ, is at the beach end of the road and the better part of a kilometre from the boat. At Ferry Road and Harbour Quay Central the seasonal long-stay rate applies: until 31 October, £4.20 for two hours, £6.30 for four and £8.30 for the day, dropping from 1 November to £2.10, £3.70 and £5.20. The council charges every day, bank holidays included, between eight in the morning and six in the evening.
On the Walberswick bank the boat comes in at the first jetty along the harbour, at the bottom of the village's own Ferry Road. The south side is the calm one — Natural England contrasts its quiet with the activity opposite, and the view behind you is grazing marsh rather than boatyards.
Parking belongs to Walberswick Car Parks Ltd, which runs the Ferry Road car park (IP18 6TJ) right beside the landing and Cliff Field (IP18 6TX), reached over a narrow bridge that only cars can use. Payment is by the RingGo app and nothing else, all year round, in daylight only and never overnight; the tariffs are shown on the boards and in the app, not online. Ferry Road can flood in bad weather and on the odd high tide. Neither car park has toilets — the nearest are by the village hall — and all of the operating profit is covenanted to the Walberswick Common Lands Charity.
The ferry cannot take card payments of any kind. Two parents with a pair of over-fives need £7 in coins or notes each way, £14 for the round trip.
No phone number is published: nobody can hold one while rowing, the operator explains. Questions go by email to [email protected], and a weather closure is posted on the website on the day.
Dogs are welcome, with no dog fare listed. A bicycle makes the fare £4 for an adult or £2 for a child, and buggies and pushchairs travel too, all in one small boat.
One reason Natural England kept the coast path on the Bailey Bridge is that boarding and leaving a small rowing boat is hard for people with limited mobility. The operator publishes nothing about wheelchair access.
The National Landscape's Walberswick Wander, 3 miles or 5 km, follows the old railway line from the village to the Bailey Bridge, runs down Southwold's harbour past the boatyards and fishermen's sheds, and returns on the ferry. Its map adds a Walberswick-side alternative for days the boat is off.
The ferry keeps a motor launch that takes over when conditions are too rough for oars, when the queue is too long for the rowing boat, and in winter. Hours can still shift with extreme weather or tide.
The operator dates a ferry on this spot to 1236. Oars did the work until 1885, when a chain ferry arrived — hand-hauled at first, according to the Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape, then replaced in 1911 by a larger steam-driven one — and the family's history says it carried cars, cattle and even elephants. It finished in 1940. The National Landscape's version has the chain ferry anchored midstream as an anti-invasion measure, breaking free and sinking; the operator's has it laid up, with Dani's great-grandfather and his brother going back to a rowing boat. Dani wrote the whole story down in 2009 as The Story of the Southwold–Walberswick Ferry, and copies can be ordered by email for £9.99.
The bridge has a railway behind it. A narrow-gauge line opened from Halesworth to Southwold in 1879, with a station at Walberswick and a swing bridge over the Blyth; it closed in 1929, and after the Second World War a Bailey footbridge took the swing bridge's place. By car there is no short cut: the Suffolk Coast tourism body puts the road detour at nine miles, out through Blythburgh on the A12. The same bargain — a short row against a long walk to the first bridge — explains the Shepperton–Weybridge boat on the Thames, and it is what South West Coast Path walkers weigh up at the seasonal Bantham crossing of the Avon.
Yes. The 2026 season runs daily, 10:00 until 17:00, through to Sunday 1 November, weather permitting, with the boat crossing whenever people arrive. If the weather closes it, that goes on the operator's website, which it updates daily.
The operator had not published anything for the winter by 1 October. Last year it ran weekends only from 11:00 to 15:00 until 21 December, then daily from 27 December to 1 January, and announced that in October — so expect the answer to appear on its page late in the month, not before.
No. Natural England routed the King Charles III England Coast Path along both banks and over the Bailey Bridge, because the ferry is seasonal and hard to board for people with limited mobility. Walkers are free to use the boat while it runs; it just is not the waymarked route.
About 2 kilometres more than taking the boat, on Natural England's figure. The bridge is roughly 1.6 kilometres upstream of the harbour mouth, on the line of the old Southwold railway, and both banks have footpaths leading to it.
No. The operator states that it cannot take card payments and is cash only. Adults pay £2.50 a crossing, under-18s £1, and under-fives nothing.
Dani, whose family has worked this crossing for five generations, together with her team of rowers. When the chain ferry was laid up in 1940, it was her great-grandfather and his brother who revived the rowing service.
In Southwold, at the harbour end of Ferry Road, a short walk in from the harbour mouth. In Walberswick, at the first jetty along the harbour, beside the Ferry Road car park. The two landings are within sight of each other across the channel.