‘Down in the romantic West Country, Will the accordion player grinds out his haunting old tunes to the last of a great race of seamen… ‘
My thanks to Fowey boatbuilder Marcus Lewis for this one!
Category: wooden boat
Westmoreland Trust publishes North Kent brickmaking booklet online
Bricks Brickmen & Barges tells the story the brick-making industry of the Faversham, Conyer and Lower Halstow area of North Kent, and of how barges carried the bricks up-river, where they were used to build Victorian London.
It is published by the Westmoreland Trust, which aims to restore the last remaining Kent brick barge, Thames sailing barge Westmoreland, as a training vessel and working exhibit of the age when the brickfields and barges of North Kent ranked alongside Chatham Dockyard as the leading local employer.
In particular the Trust focuses on Westmoreland’s links with Lower Halstow – for her entire working life she was owned and operated by Eastwoods Brickmakers, which had works in the village.
For more information, see the Westmoreland Trust website.
HJ Mears & Son of Seaton complete Tarka
Here are some recent photos of Tarka, the latest project from HJ Mears & Son Boat Builders of Seaton in Devon, taken just before she was due to go down the slip before going into winter storage.
Alex Mears comments:
‘The owner’s comments about her featured the word “sharp” a lot – and we were pleased with that. For us she’s been a joy to build.
‘The owner even had an offer from a chap to buy her the other day – we could not undertake to build another one due to our busy work schedule into next summer – but understandably he said no.
‘Our next commission is a commercial fishing boat for a local single-handed fisherman. Hope you like the photos – they say a lot more than words ever will!’
The photos do say much. I love the way everyone turned out to have their photo taken with the new boat!
For more posts from Alex Mears, click here.