Category: History

1936 photo of HMY Brittannia being towed to the spot where she was scuttled

Britannia's Last Voyage

This striking photo shows the Royal Yacht Britannia on her way to her final resting place to be sunk off the Isle of Wight on the 10th July 1936, in line with King George V’s wish following his death.

She was scuttled at night, and for this reason boat builder, columnist and general student of these things Adrian Morgan (see comments link below) believes this shot was actually taken the day before.

The Wikipedia has a good page on the original Britannia here (there is of course a magnificent new Britannia is currently being fitted out) and there are more posts on this weblog here.

Thanks to Daniel Simons for sending me this photograph. I should tell you that Daniel has published a new hardback book ‘Valkyrie Weather: Rowhedge and the America’s Cup’, which follow Lord Dunraven’s two America’s Cup challengers Valkyrie II (1893) and Valkyrie III (1895) from their construction through trial races, regattas, Atlantic crossings and Cup races in New York, to their final journeys to the nautical knacker’s yard using contemporary newspaper and yachting journal articles.

It’s likely to be of particular interest to those interested in Rowhedge family and local history.

Only 100 copies of ‘Valkyrie Weather’ are available, and the book is available only through eBay.

Tom Fort explores the River Trent in a punt – and Spider T

Tom Fort BBC4 River Trent

Writer Tom Fort’s programme River of Dreams exploring the history of the River Trent, and descending the River Trent from Stoke on Trent to the Humber Estuary in a paddled and rowed punt, on foot, and on board the Humber sloop Spider T is to be screened on the BBC4 tonight.

The programme goes out at 9pm, and I’m sure it will make some intelligent entertainment. Some readers may remember being intrigued by his 2012 programme about the unpromising-sounding A303. Little did we know…

There are clips from the programme here and here.

PS – We watched this last night. It’s well worth watching, though the Trent looks pretty scary in places, and I think Fort’s punt carries rather more buoyancy (and a shorter waterline) than strictly necessary, which will have made his boat a little slow…

The life of Bob Roberts – a short article written for EDS magazine

Bob Roberts article

Here’s a piece I recently wrote for the folkies’ magazine English Dance and Song about the legendary and sometimes controversial barge skipper Bob Roberts, who was also a celebrated singer and melodeon player. Click on the image above to download a pdf file…

Old Bob’s barge Cambria has been brought back to life thanks to a Lottery grant and the hard work of volunteers – read all about it at the Cambria Trust website. (I included this link in the story but it had to be edited out!)

The photos below show Cambria leaving Faversham Creek on a high tide on the 29th March.

Cambria makes her way down Faversham Creek on a high tide 1 Cambria makes her way down Faversham Creek on a high tide 2 Cambria makes her way down Faversham Creek on a high tide 3