more boating memories (very heavy in pictures) upper Crouch
May 3, 2020 20:23:47 GMT
patty, erivers, and 1 more like this
Post by JohnV on May 3, 2020 20:23:47 GMT
As we can't go boating properly I thought I would share some thoughts and memories of my favourite cruising area.
For many years I have mucked about in small boats around the Essex coast and with it's rivers and creeks it's an area I love.
I am fortunate that I have a friend who owns two elderly gaff rigged traditional boats, my favourite and the one in which I have sailed round that are quite a few times with him is a 25 foot 6 inch clinker built drop keel yacht based on the design of a Thames Shrimp boat and built by one of the traditional builders in 1926.
"Beagle of Leigh" at her mooring at the Up River Yacht club moorings on the river Crouch at Hullbridge. This funny little riverside was once an airport as it was a base for passenger sea planes.
SAM_0546 by mudlarker, on Flickr
above Hullbridge the river is shallow and tortuous, it is possible to get a shallow draft boat up to Battlesbridge where there were originally tidal doors'
Originally sailing barges made there way up here to the mill (which is now an antiques centre) and a pub The Barge.
One or two largish boats sit at moorings here but they are more on land than water (there is only about 6 foot or so at high water springs) and sitting half buried in the grass and reeds of the bank just at the edge of the car park are the slowly disappearing remains of the sailing barge "British Empire"
Leaving the moorings of the Upper River club You pass several moorings and boat clubs, a very busy stretch and then you come to the deeper water moorings.
052 by mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_0554 by mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_0557 by mudlarker, on Flickr
Rounding the first bend below Hullbridge you pass the wonderfully named Brandy Hole with larger yachts on trots here where the water is a lot deeper (and also where the fishing boats lie)
SAM_0559 by mudlarker, on Flickr
Just downstream of this is Clementsgreen creek which leads up to South Woodham Ferrers (which as a child I knew as South Wooden Ferrets) Now home to a water ski club it was a quiet remote area when I was a child, long before the huge new town was built there and it was a strange little hamlet.
Abandoned in the creek at that time was the rotting remains of a Billy Boy (a large gaff rigged trading vessel that used to trade the East coast)
The next creek leading off to the North is Stow creek leading to the old West Wick marina now known as Fambridge marina.
Stow creek is not just one creek but a maze of little islands and side creeks and perched on a little island (covered at spring tides) is a funny little wooden house. No elecricity, no water and no access except by boat (this was up for sale a couple of years ago ..... an incredible place but oh so bleak and lonely in the winter)
Shellfish dredger at work in the Crouch, the masts of Fambridge marina in the background
SAM_0561 by mudlarker, on Flickr
The little house on Stow Creek
SAM_0563 by mudlarker, on Flickr
Just downstream from the little house is a slipway and the other bit of Fambridge boating, Fambridge Yacht Haven with a few berths alongside, a large pontoon and three rows of trots in the river (always an interesting bit of river sailing down on the ebb and trying to do it on a single tack
)
SAM_0565 by mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_0566 by mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_0567 by mudlarker, on Flickr
SAM_0575 by mudlarker, on Flickr
These muddy creeks hide the remains of many ships some famous, many unknown. One of them, Paglesham Creek (no longer navigable) was another route to the river Roach and was the other waterway that made Wallasea Island an Island. The mud of this waterway hide the final remains of HMS Beagle which after its glory days as the expedition ship that took Darwin on his journey round the world, ended up as a block ship on a creek off the River Roach.
On these reaches above Burnham on Crouch occasionally you will find seals hauled out on the mudbanks near Canewdon. Named after Cnut (Canute) who beat Edmund Ironsides at the battle of Assandun somewhere in this area (possibly Ashingdon the next village) and became King of the English
For many years I have mucked about in small boats around the Essex coast and with it's rivers and creeks it's an area I love.
I am fortunate that I have a friend who owns two elderly gaff rigged traditional boats, my favourite and the one in which I have sailed round that are quite a few times with him is a 25 foot 6 inch clinker built drop keel yacht based on the design of a Thames Shrimp boat and built by one of the traditional builders in 1926.
"Beagle of Leigh" at her mooring at the Up River Yacht club moorings on the river Crouch at Hullbridge. This funny little riverside was once an airport as it was a base for passenger sea planes.
SAM_0546 by mudlarker, on Flickrabove Hullbridge the river is shallow and tortuous, it is possible to get a shallow draft boat up to Battlesbridge where there were originally tidal doors'
Originally sailing barges made there way up here to the mill (which is now an antiques centre) and a pub The Barge.
One or two largish boats sit at moorings here but they are more on land than water (there is only about 6 foot or so at high water springs) and sitting half buried in the grass and reeds of the bank just at the edge of the car park are the slowly disappearing remains of the sailing barge "British Empire"
Leaving the moorings of the Upper River club You pass several moorings and boat clubs, a very busy stretch and then you come to the deeper water moorings.
052 by mudlarker, on FlickrSAM_0554 by mudlarker, on FlickrSAM_0557 by mudlarker, on FlickrRounding the first bend below Hullbridge you pass the wonderfully named Brandy Hole with larger yachts on trots here where the water is a lot deeper (and also where the fishing boats lie)
SAM_0559 by mudlarker, on FlickrJust downstream of this is Clementsgreen creek which leads up to South Woodham Ferrers (which as a child I knew as South Wooden Ferrets) Now home to a water ski club it was a quiet remote area when I was a child, long before the huge new town was built there and it was a strange little hamlet.
Abandoned in the creek at that time was the rotting remains of a Billy Boy (a large gaff rigged trading vessel that used to trade the East coast)
The next creek leading off to the North is Stow creek leading to the old West Wick marina now known as Fambridge marina.
Stow creek is not just one creek but a maze of little islands and side creeks and perched on a little island (covered at spring tides) is a funny little wooden house. No elecricity, no water and no access except by boat (this was up for sale a couple of years ago ..... an incredible place but oh so bleak and lonely in the winter)
Shellfish dredger at work in the Crouch, the masts of Fambridge marina in the background
SAM_0561 by mudlarker, on FlickrThe little house on Stow Creek
SAM_0563 by mudlarker, on FlickrJust downstream from the little house is a slipway and the other bit of Fambridge boating, Fambridge Yacht Haven with a few berths alongside, a large pontoon and three rows of trots in the river (always an interesting bit of river sailing down on the ebb and trying to do it on a single tack
)SAM_0565 by mudlarker, on FlickrSAM_0566 by mudlarker, on FlickrSAM_0567 by mudlarker, on FlickrSAM_0575 by mudlarker, on FlickrThese muddy creeks hide the remains of many ships some famous, many unknown. One of them, Paglesham Creek (no longer navigable) was another route to the river Roach and was the other waterway that made Wallasea Island an Island. The mud of this waterway hide the final remains of HMS Beagle which after its glory days as the expedition ship that took Darwin on his journey round the world, ended up as a block ship on a creek off the River Roach.
On these reaches above Burnham on Crouch occasionally you will find seals hauled out on the mudbanks near Canewdon. Named after Cnut (Canute) who beat Edmund Ironsides at the battle of Assandun somewhere in this area (possibly Ashingdon the next village) and became King of the English
it was done just before high tide.
