Tony Aldridge reports…
JULY saw an event based around the Dockers Club, Sharpness as part of the programme of celebrations of 150 years since the opening of the Sharpness New Docks.
When the Gloucester Sharpness Canal was completed in 1827 there was a smaller entrance lock to the River Severn but as trade boomed and ships became larger a new dock was constructed and is still in operation today.
The docks are now operated by Canal & River Trust, offering a great cruising destination with moorings just north of the dock. There are lots of walks including just north to the Purton Hulks and views across the many moods of the River Severn.
The weekend was co-ordinated by the Canal & River Trust and the trust’s Dunkirk Little Ship, Queen Boadicea II, sailed from Gloucester to do public trips around the dock and adjacent canal. The Vale of Berkeley Railway’s display reminded me of the busy traffic around the dock and across the old railway bridge over the Severn to the coal sources in the Forest of Dean.
Members of the Gloucester and District Model Boat Club displayed some of their detailed replicas including Mayflower, one of the tugs that used to take barges from the dock to Gloucester.
The canal arm to the original lock was home to TS Vindicatrix and a model was on display with log books of some of the 70,000 merchant seamen who trained on board and around the docks between 1939 and 1966.
Moored in the dock is STV Tenacious, launched in 2000. She became the largest wooden tall ship built in the United Kingdom in the last 100 years. She is 65 metres (213.25 feet) long, including bowsprit, and she is rigged as a three-masted barque with two mizzen gaffs. She is one of only two tall ships designed specifically to enable disabled and non-disabled people to sail side-by-side as equal members of the crew.
Retired dock workers and wives attended, recounting their many memories of the busy port. The weather was good with good visibility of the Severn bridges from the picnic area that overlooks the breakwaters and lock entrance. It provides a great vantage point for ships or even narrowboats arriving and departing.
Future celebratory events are September 14: Sea Shanty Festival and October 26: finale, noon to 5pm. The actual anniversary is November 25.
