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

Legendary sailing barge skipper Bob Roberts sings Johnny Todd

Skipper of the engine-less sailing barge Cambria from 1949, singer and musician, newspaperman and writer, old Bob Roberts was what you might call a multi-talented chap.

Read all about him at the East Anglian Music Trust website and at the Wikipedia, and read about his barge at the Cambria Trust’s web pages.

We spent a great evening singing and playing on board the now restored Cambria a few days ago, and look forward to returning some time.

More songs from Bob can be found here and here.