the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Light Railway Company. Financial difficulties continued. By 1904 the company was about £76,000 in debt so a new limited company was floated, the Weston, Clevedon and Portishead Docks Railway, with a capital of £120,000. The new company still found it difficult to raise enough money until September 1905 when £14,500 of 5% debentures were taken up by the Excess Insurance Company. In 1906 it borrowed £16,000 from other sources but was unable to repay the interest so the Excess Insurance Company provided funds up to £15,000 in March 1907 on the condition that the existing directors were replaced by new directors chosen by the insurance company. With money available again work could be completed on the new line to Portishead. It was inspected on 31 July 1907 and opened for traffic on 7 August 1907. Receivership and closure In 1909 Cuthbert Heath, the managing director of the Excess Insurance Company, petitioned for the railway to enter receivership. Spencer Gore-Browne, one of the directors nominated by the insurance company, was appointed as the receiver and Colonel Stephens, the so-called' 'Light Railway king' was appointed as manager in 1911. He managed the railway along with a number of similar lines from an office in Tonbridge, Kent. Stephens tried to gain additional business for the line. A small branch was opened at Wick St Lawrence to serve a wharf which the railway built on the River Yeo; the railway operated some boats carrying coal from Wales for a few years in the 1920s. Two additional passenger halts were opened in 1917-1918 and the larger stations given improved facilities. From 1921 a number of internal combustion railcars and rail-mounted tractors were used which significantly reduced costs. Steam locomotives were retained, especially for the trains from Clevedon to Portishead which conveyed heavy traffic from quarries in the area. Colonel Stephens died on 23 October 1931 and was replaced as manager by his former assistant W. H. Austen. Spencer Gore-Browne died in 1933 and Cuthbert Heath was running down his involvement as he approached retirement. Gore-Brown had been known to pay some charges out of his own pocket but the new owners and receiver were less kindly disposed to the railway. Receipts were reducing too, and from 1935 some of the traffic from Black Rock Quarry (the largest freight forwarder on the line) was transferred to road haulage. The company obtained