Deben Reaches and Marks

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 in 1637, quite reasonable given the shipbuilding at Woodbridge although detail has only been found from 1845.

Originally, the Felixstowe Ferry and Woodbridge pilots managed the marking of the river. Over the twentieth century, the Felixstowe Ferry, Ramsholt¹Ramsholt Fairway Committee formed by Norman Simper in 1959 – RDA’s Deben Autumn 2012, Waldringfield, Kyson and Woodbridge Fairway Committees and others, became responsible for oversight of their respective sections of the Fairway. The town section of the river is managed by clubs and boatyards²Moorings on the River Deben – RDA’s Deben Magazine Autumn 2013 .: the reaches in Woodbridge and Melton now have many small buoys for yachts, and the three sailing clubs have their own sets of seasonal racing marks, some of which are mentioned elsewhere. The naming and marking of the tidal river in different eras, with zoomable maps, follows:

Navigation in a small boat is not difficult: although Cowper says:

‘…we do not recommend this voyage to those who are pressed for time, or who want to have as much sailing free from careful handling as possible.’

1892 Extract from Cowper on Deben

In the seventeenth century, ships³Woodbridge – shipbuilding after the Anglo Saxons see www.woodbridgeriversidetrust.org were built in the shipyard at Woodbridge and in the nineteenth century, schooners⁴100-ton schooners – Stammers, M. (2003) Suffolk shipping. Stroud Tempus Publ were berthing at the quays, so there must have been aids to navigation then. A local curiosity is the wooden buoy on display at Woodbridge Museum. This is of the type used around the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the origin is unknown but it is rather small so it would have been from a sheltered location such as the Deben River.

Mid Nineteenth Century

We know the marks in 1845 from the Admiralty Deben Survey, the earliest detailed chart found. The Royal Navy’s low opinion of the beacons at that time might lead one to wonder if better navigation marks might have undermined the commercial interests of the pilots who set them since a comment on this survey says:

‘The Beacons…are of a very inferior description’.

1845 Deben Survey

The survey named the reaches and points along the river, some are familiar, others not. As this is the earliest record yet found, it is uncertain which names were already in use and which were poetic creations of the hydrographers. Today’s charts, sadly, use few reach names although local pilot books do⁵East Coast Rivers and East Coast Pilot use a few reach names.. The latest chart found with liberal use of reach names is the 1976 Imray Deben, discussed later.

Most probably, at the time of the 1845 survey, the ‘beacons’ were poles ( also, withies or perches) impaled in the mud along the banks, replaced as required by the pilots from the Felixstowe Ferry or Woodbridge. As they knew the river intimately then these need not have been elaborate.

Horse Reach and Middle Ground at Waldringfield refer to the erstwhile Horse. Bowships Reach was where the Woodbridge pilots handed over to the Felixstowe Ferry pilots. Rock Point opposite Hemley is a good name, note that a Ferry is mentioned at Ramsholt, this ran to Kirton Creek and elsewhere⁸Ferry – according to Robert Simper. At the north side of the Deben entrance is North-ear point, also mentioned by Spence in 1804. The channel at that time seems to have been in its northern position.

Early Twentieth Century

Frank Cowper, in 1892, used all his enthusiasm in crossing the bar and only got as far as Hemley, so tells us little. Messum⁹Messum, S.V.S.C. East Coast Rivers. 1903rd ed. writing in 1903 describes the black conical buoy at the north end of Horse Sand and ‘poles and bushes’ marking the rest of the channel. These were most probably similar to the 1845 ‘beacons’, perhaps explaining the derogatory remarks on the survey.

Irving, 1927, gives a more fulsome account¹⁰Irving, Lt Cdr John. Rivers and Creeks of the Thames Estuary, 1927 warning of the chain ferry¹¹Chain ferry, see Felixstowe – Ferries, Excursions, Ports, Piers – Ferry Photographs – Ferry Postcards (simplonpc.co.uk) and telegraph cables at the entrance and also mentioning the buoy at the north end of the horse. By this time it seems that the beacons had been upgraded:

Above Shottisham Reach the navigable channel is well beaconed on either hand at the various bends and turns: starboard hand beacons -posts with black triangle (point upward) top marks ; port hand beacons – post with red triangle (base upward) topmarks.

Irving, Lt Cdr John. Rivers and Creeks of the Thames Estuary,1927

This arrangement was the same in 1945¹²1945 see & douglas branson, d s c w. eric wilson d. s.o. The Pilots Guide to the Thames Estuary and the Norfolk Broads for Yachtsmen. imray, laurie, norie & wilson ltd., 1945. and the Waldringfield middle ground was buoyed by the Sailing Club with ‘upper’ and lower’ horse buoys.

It might have been thought that the improvements would have occurred in the 1890s when sailing barge traffic was significant but that was not so. It must have been the case that the improvements came with the growth of yachting, although the changes pre-date the Waldringfield Sailing Club (1923)¹³WSC – Club History – Waldringfield Sailing Club (waldringfieldsc.com) and Fairway Committee (1938).

Irving describes the Horse at Waldringfield and gives a clearance line using a beach hut and tree. From Kingston Point to Woodbridge he says, is clearly marked by beacons and ‘perches’ (presumably withies?).

In 1946 Waldringfield Fairway Committee(WFC) positioned long poles as beacons and obtained buoys “with suitable top marks” for the Horse. They recorded a payment of One Guinea to the pilot for placing them. The ice of the severe winter of 1947 swept away the beacons on the Waldringfield Fairway and, most likely, elsewhere on the Deben although the buoys on the Horse survived. This may have accelerated the change from beacons to buoys. In the same year, Trinity House agreed to place a larger buoy on the wreck near the Rocks¹⁶Colinda was a Lowestoft trawler sunk by ice in 1940, Simper, R. (1992) The Deben River : an enchanted waterway. Ramsholt Creekside Publishing. which would have been a green mark, but it may never have been placed. Despite requests from WFC Trinity House would not buoy the Horse.

By 1949 the Waldringfield boatyard owner, Mr Nunn (an appropriate name for a man entrusted with laying buoys – nuns & cones – in the river), was trying to get buoys from Trinity House for the Waldringfield Fairway. There appears to have been at least one buoy in the river itself then: the Red & White chequered port hand mark at the Horse near the Ferry which was still there in the 1960s

In 1950 six buoys were placed in the Waldringfield Fairway from Methersgate to Rocks. Prior to this the convention was Red to Starboard and Black to Port.¹⁷Buoy colours – the 1936 Universal System changed to Red to starboard and Black to Port around 1950. This precedes the IALA system in 1977 See History of British Buoyage.. However, the new Trinity House rules were to change all channel markings to Black to Starboard, and Red to Port. Waldringfield agreed to adopt this scheme although Woodbridge apparently declined¹⁸Buoy colours from WFC notes, their buoys were recorded as being the other way around, which may have caused confusion around Methersgate.

So, the beacons were changed to buoys on the Waldringfield section between 1947 and 1950 and probably, at around this time, further upriver.

Later Twentieth Century

Today the marks at the entrance channel change often: in the river, the markings vary only slightly, such as the Horse buoy at the Ferry becoming Deben. The modern buoys below Methersgate have only numbers and the lack of reach names on charts has discouraged their use. Surely using ‘Bowships’ and ‘Muddick’ is preferable to rounding ‘4’ and ‘8’? For example, perhaps 1A could be called Masons for the one-time cement works and, surely, there should be a buoy named for George Arnott and perhaps Edward Fitzgerald. Restoring reach names could easily be accomplished by Imray and buoy names could, over time be changed from numbers :mainly a Waldringfield Fairway issue. Perhaps there could be a name for some ‘point’s in the river²¹Hemley Point has been used by Robert Simper and Waldringfield Point opposite the Tips is an obvious name for that feature.. A possible campaign someday?

• 1
  Ramsholt Fairway Committee formed by Norman Simper in 1959 – RDA’s Deben Autumn 2012
• 2
  Moorings on the River Deben – RDA’s Deben Magazine Autumn 2013 .
• 3
  Woodbridge – shipbuilding after the Anglo Saxons see www.woodbridgeriversidetrust.org
• 4
  100-ton schooners – Stammers, M. (2003) Suffolk shipping. Stroud Tempus Publ
• 5
  East Coast Rivers and East Coast Pilot use a few reach names.
• 6
  Hauling posts discussed elsewhere by Robert Simper
• 7
  Steamers – see map in The Deben River by Robert Simper.
• 8
  Ferry – according to Robert Simper
• 9
  Messum, S.V.S.C. East Coast Rivers. 1903rd ed.
• 10
  Irving, Lt Cdr John. Rivers and Creeks of the Thames Estuary, 1927
• 11
  Chain ferry, see Felixstowe – Ferries, Excursions, Ports, Piers – Ferry Photographs – Ferry Postcards (simplonpc.co.uk)
• 12
  1945 see & douglas branson, d s c w. eric wilson d. s.o. The Pilots Guide to the Thames Estuary and the Norfolk Broads for Yachtsmen. imray, laurie, norie & wilson ltd., 1945.
• 13
  WSC – Club History – Waldringfield Sailing Club (waldringfieldsc.com)
• 14
  W.G.Arnott, W G. Suffolk Estuary : The Story of the River Deben. N. Adlard, , 2D Impression, 1950.
• 15
  Memory of beacons post War – Mike Nunn who was related to the owner of Waldringfield Boatyard at the time.
• 16
  Colinda was a Lowestoft trawler sunk by ice in 1940, Simper, R. (1992) The Deben River : an enchanted waterway. Ramsholt Creekside Publishing.
• 17
  Buoy colours – the 1936 Universal System changed to Red to starboard and Black to Port around 1950. This precedes the IALA system in 1977
• 18
  Buoy colours from WFC notes
• 19
  In 1961 Trinity House started making annual inspections. In addition to the red/black colour convention changes, metal buoys were replaced by locally manufactured GRP, then replaced by foam-filled polythene which is rather more resilient. It also seems as if the Elder Brethren of Trinity House would have preferred to be rid of Waldringfield – Trinity House inspect all buoys and withies in the river (they have done this annually since). They mention that they “cannot enforce such buoyage and would be pleased if they were not there as they had not ordered them in the first place’.
• 20
  Blackstakes on the Ore see 1976 Imray chart between Orford and Aldeburgh.
• 21
  Hemley Point has been used by Robert Simper and Waldringfield Point opposite the Tips is an obvious name for that feature.