Our waters are shallow with many shoals and sandbanks. The safe channels have been known for many centuries and some, such as the Spitway, are mentioned in old documents. There are also our rivers which have names for the different reaches and creeks. As the same term often applies to both the bank and the channel, i.e. Ray Sand, some items are allocated to both categories.
Tizard, writing in 1890 defines the channels in the Estuary:
…the channels between them[the banks], trend in a north-east and south-west direction: this is doubtless due to the fact that the stream outside the estuary is running to the northward whilst the tide is ebbing from the river, and, consequently, the ebb stream in the estuary is deflected to the north-east-ward. 1The north-east set of the tide is reinforced by the Coriolis effect due to the Earth’s rotation.
The channels into the estuary, therefore, must be classed under two headings : (a) those which follow the main line of the flood and ebb streams, and (b) those which do not follow the general stream of the tide.Tizard, T. H. (Thomas Henry). The Thames Estuary. 1890
In the former category are the Warp, West Swin, Middle Deep, East Swin, Barrow Deep, Oaze Deep, and Black Deep; in the latter are the Middle Swin, Queen’s Channel, Prince’s Channel, Alexandra Channel, Duke of Edinburgh Channel, Gore Channel, &c., which are all more or less of the nature of swatchways across the main line of the sand-banks of the estuary. In the Black and Barrow Deeps, which are the deepest and straightest channels through the estuary, the ebb stream runs 7 hours and the flood 5 hours, and the ebb is much stronger than the flood, the stream setting fairly through. In the Duke of Edinburgh Channel, the deepest swatchway of the estuary, the streams at the north and south ends are of a rotatory character, revolving with the hands of the clock.
Some terms:
Reach, Deep, Fleet, Swatch, Swash, Channel, Gat, Way, Warp
15th Century, Hakluyt Local Sailing Directions
1759 Bowen Essex showing Orwell Beacon
1845 Deben Survey
1890 Thames Estuary Survey extract Tizard
1943/4 War Department Charts
Abraham’s Bosom
Bloody Point at Shotley Spit
Breakwater Barges in Walton Backwaters
Cement Works, Mud Digging
D-Day Deception Fleet – Deben
D-Day Deception Fleet – Orwell
Deben – the name
Deben Reaches and Marks
Deben Soundings
Edward Fitzgerald and Yacht Scandal
Ferro Concrete Barges in Walton Backwaters
Galleons & Girling’s Hard
Grog – Vice-Admiral Edward Vernon – Orwell Park
Gullet Channel
Hams and Tips
King’s Fleet on the Deben
LBK6 – Landing Barge Kitchen at Harwich
Loder’s Cut and John Loder, Troublesome Reach, Bloody Point and Kyson Point.
Martello Towers
Medusa Buoy, HMS Medusa, Medusa Channel and Lord Nelson
Pepys, Samuel
Ray Sand Channel
River Deben Association Archive
Rolling Ground and Pitching Ground
Sailing past Dunwich in the Seventeenth Century
SB Three Sisters at Kirton Creek
The Bawdsey Sea-mark and Churches
The Bradwell Breakwater at Sales Point
The Deben’s Ring of Churches
The Ruins of Walton Castle
The Sledway
The Twizzle
Wadgate Ledge and Wadgate Creek
Waldringfield Cuttings
Waldringfield Horse and the Winkle
Waldringfield Island, Stonnor Creek and Burrell’s Long Wall
Where Thames Smooth Waters Glide
Woodbridge Haven
Woolverstone, D-Day at 80 Exhibition
Notes
Questions
Sources
Marine Estate Research Report Historical changes in the seabed of the greater Thames estuary. give a list of historical charts as well as listing the names of many banks.
Muir-Evans, Harold. ‘The Mariner’s Mirror, 16:4, 411-423, DOI: Notes on SANDS ETC. BETWEEN HARWICH AND THE NORE’, 1930.
Muir Evans, Harold. A Short History of the Thames Estuary. Imray, Laurie, Norie, Wilson, n.d.
W.G.Arnott, W G. Suffolk Estuary : The Story of the River Deben. N. Adlard, , 2D Impression, 1950.
The Place-Names of the Deben Valley Parishes. Norman Adlard, 1946.
Redman, J B. ‘The East Coast between the Thames and the Wash Estuaries (Including Plate).’ Minutes of the Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers 23, no. 1864 (January 1864): 186–224. https://doi.org/10.1680/imotp.1864.23283.
Footnotes
- 1The north-east set of the tide is reinforced by the Coriolis effect due to the Earth’s rotation.
Image Sources and Credits
Image Credits and Sources
- Deben-Plate: Source UKHO Archive. Copyright Protection has now lapsed
- 1902-Chart-of-Ray-Sand-from-Messums-East-Coast-Rivers: 1902 Chart of Ray Sand from Messums East Coast Rivers
- FI Bawdsey-Seamark-from-Di-Coulting-1447×2048@2x_cr: Courtesy of Coulting, Di - Boathouse Cafe Bawdsey | All Rights Reserved
- 1The north-east set of the tide is reinforced by the Coriolis effect due to the Earth’s rotation.
Image Credits and Sources
- Deben-Plate: Source UKHO Archive. Copyright Protection has now lapsed
- 1902-Chart-of-Ray-Sand-from-Messums-East-Coast-Rivers: 1902 Chart of Ray Sand from Messums East Coast Rivers
- FI Bawdsey-Seamark-from-Di-Coulting-1447×2048@2x_cr: Courtesy of Coulting, Di - Boathouse Cafe Bawdsey | All Rights Reserved