 The most successful steamer company serving the Bristol Channel was P & A Campbell 's " White Funnel " fleet . Their operations were suspended during the Second World War , after which the number of passengers decreased with the availability of cheap foreign holidays and the opening of the Severn Bridge in the 1960s . Regular ferries ceased serving Birnbeck in 1971 and the final excursion was made 19 October 1979 . The pleasure " steamers " PS Waverley and MV Balmoral still operate in the Bristol Channel , but any calls at Weston are made by a connecting tender from Knightstone Harbour . 
