Channels in the sea or in rivers such as creeks.
An owner of Orwell Park was George Tomline who was a key figure in the development of Felixstowe Port and a major landowner on the peninsula (see Edward Fitzgerald). An interesting feature of Orwell Park is the boat house with a concrete pool with iron steps for access. Originally built by E. G. Pretyman, heir …
George (W.G.) Arnott – George, a Woodbridge Estate Agent and Auctioneer clearly loved the Deben. He wrote The Place-names of the Deben Valley Parishes, published in 1946. This is a reference work built partly upon the research of the Redstone family; Suffolk estuary: the story of the River Deben, published in 1950 extends the earlier …
Scanned from Personal Collection. Note the seawalls, or lack, at Waldringfield quay, Horse in channel.
Foulger’s Gat, pronounced ‘Fullgers’ is a swatchway across the Long Sand connecting the Black Deep to the Knock Deep. It has a least depth of around 3m and is now surrounded by the London Array windfarm, although still usable by yachts.
There are Ferro Concrete Bargesthe Stour at Harwich,, Mistley and in Ewarton Bay.
There are at least two Ferro Concrete Barges at Pin Mill on the Orwell. One is a stem head, used as a houseboat, and one an open swim head. Another is buried under Ipswich Grain Dock.
On the Woodbridge Riverside Trust website: is An interesting map of the Deben with some historical notes. It has a different explanation of the name Kingsfleet.
A hulk (69’x20′ ) sits on the mud in Bathside Bay (drying height 3.8m CD) and has been there since at least 2000. This looks very much like an old steel Thames lighter.
The fighting men who landed on D-Day needed to be fed so ten Landing Barge Kitchen (LBK) were built for the task. These were adapted from steel Thames Lighters by fitting two petrol engines and building the kitchen on the lighter. Crossing from Langstone Harbour to Sword Beach on D-Day, with the 35th LB Flotilla, …
On 6 June 1944, Allied troops landed on the Normandy beaches and the battle to liberate Europe began. 80 years on since D-Day, the largest amphibious invasion in the history of warfare, we remember those who made the ultimate sacrifice in defence of our freedom. The small village of Woolverstone had a vital part to play in these tumultuous times.
Five Ferro Concrete Barges, FCBs, in Walton Backwaters at Foundry Reach and Tichmarsh Marina. From WW2.
Sales Point at Bradwell in the Blackwater is protected by Ferro Concrete Barges or FCBs.
On the modern (2015) charts the Sledway is the channel between Cutler Sand to the West and Bawdsey Bank to the East. However, historically, the Sledway is the navigable sea bounded by the Cutler, Bawdsey Bank, Shipwash, Threshold, Roughs, Ridge and Cork, which affords access to the Havens. A sense of this is given in …
We do hold similar surveys of River Orwell and River Stour in the collection. I believe the reference numbers are L4361 and L5429 but will send you the relevant survey ledger separately for you to undertake your own search. If I have identified the correct surveys then I can advise we do not currently have digitised versions. However, we …
Edward Fitzgerald (1809-1883) was from a wealthy family and a gentleman of leisure. Known primarily for his translation of a Persian poem he was of a bohemian disposition and lived an unconventional life. He was one of the ‘Woodbridge Wits’, a group of poets and artists, which included Thomas Churchyard, George Crabbe and Bernard Barton. …
Coasting Bargemaster In Coasting Bargemaster, Bob Roberts tells of taking refuge, whilst in the Martinet, in an offshore anchorage: “It is a desolate spot, many miles offshore, where the Maplin sands are divided from the Whitaker shoals by a semi-circle of water from three to four fathoms in depth at low tide.” Coasting Bargemaster by …
Deben Soundings FB Suffolk Inlets HB – good images from Sentinel data on the bar. Bawdsey tide gauge.
This archive of earlier copies of the ‘Deben’ magazine is a trove of hidden treasures and readers will find their time in reviewing it rewarded. To read. Tribes of the Deben Anglo Saxons. Gosnold Autumn 2000, also various other history pieces. Wrecks on the Deben – Spring 2000
For literary reasons, we will take our imaginary trip in 1881. It is mid-November and fortunately the weather is set fair; this has been a year of dramatic weather extremes. Repairs have been made from the Great Storm of a few weeks ago; thankfully we were on a sheltered berth at the time. We are …
Portland cement was made at Masons Cement Works in Waldringfield on the Deben. 120,000 tons of mud was taken Hemley Point and Early Creek in SB Kingfisher
See STU 067 – A wooden fish trap of Anglo-Saxon date, located to the west of Holbrook Creek in Holbrook Bay, Stutton – Suffolk Heritage Explorer
The Galleon’s racing mark is most likely misnamed. The hard to the southeast was once known as Girling’s Hard. There are records of the Girling family owning land in the area as far back as 1521. So, barring a convincing Galleon tale that is probably the origin. In the late nineteenth century, …
For sailors, much of the navigational interest of the Deben is getting in and out of Woodbridge Haven: there is, however, the more prosaic topic of how the way to Woodbridge has been marked over the years. This is a tour through the sources and changes. George Arnott says the first reference to beacons was …
The coastline and channels change over the centuries. Today the route from the Thames to Harwich is Swin-Spitway-Wallet but was it always so? Muir-Evans proposed that there was an inshore route1See – Muir Evans, Harold. A Short History of the Thames Estuary. Imray, Laurie, Norie, Wilson 1See – Muir Evans, Harold. A Short History of …
As one sails past Dunwich these days, there is little to see and no reason to come near to land. In any case, the direct course to the next headland will be offshore just inside, or over, Dunwich Bank. As a reader of wooden navy fiction, it was the Jack Stannard trilogy that prompted a …
These were originally in a ring bound set and are not much larger than A5 size. If there is one of the Deben it is elusive. These are from personal collection.
Available at high definition at BNF. This shows the Orwell Beacon at Havengore. Did this lead to the Essex Inshore route? Some of the beacons, such as at Harwich Navy Yard, show shapes and the marshes and ‘-wicks’ along the Essex coast are worthy of note.
The channel from Walton Channel to the Wade in the Walton Backwaters is interesting for its name. According to H.Muir Evans: Twissel Creek means the twirling creek, a dialect formation of “twist” or “twirl.” “Twirl” is cognate with Norwegian trilla and Cotgrave gives “Girer, to veere or turn with the wind, to twirle, whirle or …
This website is packed with information on the River Thames from source to sea. This section relates to the Estuary.
There is a full account of this topic at Woolverstone, D-Day at 80 Exhibition. This RAF photograph, 26th March 1944 – 3054 – shows what must be real landing craft near Woolverstone on the River Orwell. There are thirty-five of what appear to be MkV landing craft tank (LCT) and, perhaps, six of the considerably …
Dummy Landing Craft were built at Waldringfield and moored on the Deben before D-Day to deceive the Nazis. These were probably the largest craft ever to be in the river.
The 1845 Deben Survey shows a ‘U’ bend with Troublesome Reach to the south and Kingston Reach to the west. ‘Troublesome’ relates to the difficulty experienced by sailing vessels in rounding the bend at Kingston (now Kyson Point) due to the prevailing southwesterly and erratic winds from Martlesham Creek. At the west end of Troublesome …
Read more “Loder’s Cut and John Loder, Troublesome Reach, Bloody Point and Kyson Point.”
Cuttings in saltmarsh – none similar – purpose not known.
Is it an island? – is in Waldringfield? – changes in banks and channels
Once buoyed – Alker Tripp – Winkle Island – Stonnor Channel
TBA
First detailed Survey – Tidal heights – Reach names – not a chart – Captain Stanley – HMS Blazer
The Gullet Channel provides a North South route to Goldmer Gat which avoids the shoals near Harwich. It is shown on the 1804 Spence Chart.
The Deben or Woodbridge River was once guarded by a Roman Fort. The channel changes as do the methods of marking it…
Until 1934 a 50 foot high seamark on Bawdsey Cliff marked the Sledway.
King’s Fleet on the Deben Port of Goseford – Canes Seed – Edward III’s Fleet – Charles I engineers
A group of twenty dumb barges or lighters has protected the northeast of Horsey Island, by the entrance to Walton Channel, since 1988. They constitute a one kilometre sea defence guarding the island against northeasterly waves to which Hamford Water is exposed, this is the …
TBA
Today, the Ray Sand Channel dries at about 0.6m or 2′ but it was not always so: it has changed depth from 13′ CD to 2′, a reduction of 4.5m over only 75 years: the channel now dries. The channel has little use today, other than a shoal draught shortcut between the Blackwater and Crouch. …
Pillar replaced buoy – Tide Gauge – Wadgate meaning – Settlement – Harbour
Between 1808 and 1812, twenty-nine Martello Towers were built along the coasts of Essex and Suffolk: eighteen still exist, with one over-built (R): eleven have been lost. The sources given below cover the history and current state of the Towers: the objective here is to show, on the overview map, the positions of current towers …
Samuel Pepys, known for Samuel Pepys Diary is covered fully elsewhere. Of local interest is that he was M.P. for Harwich and …
Full 1890 paper in Nature.
There is little activity at Kirton Creek nowadays. However, it was once the mouth of the Mill River and, after enclosure, boasted a Brick Works. This was dependent upon barge transport which seemed quite challenging given the nature of the channel. A relic of that era is the hulk of a Thames Sailing Barge which is slowly being claimed by the mud.
1801 Nelson in HMS Medusa with Capt. Gore is guided by Spence to scrape out to sea.
Deben and Orwell have Bloody Pint – King Alfred vs the Danes – Martellos – Stone Heaps
The GROG SHM is presumably named for Edward Vernon. He served on Admiral Sir Cloudsesley Shovell’s flagship at the capture of Gibraltar. He was later captain of the ship that avoided disaster in the catastrophic loss of Cloudesley Shovell’s fleet on the Isles of Scilly in 1707. After rising to the rank of Vice Admiral, …
“As our circle of knowledge expands, so does the circumference of darkness surrounding it.” Albert Einstein George Arnott suggested that most local churches “…stand on the banks of a creek and were at one time accessible by boat, so that material.. could be brought by water…” 1Locations of local Churches – Arnott, W.G. (1950) Suffolk …