When was the last time a new marina was opened on the East Coast?

[Rum Run]

Thanks Jan!

I could not bring to mind what it was that the poor “Westmoreland” had her forefoot on. Of course it was one of those concrete pontoons that one used to see everywhere, and which I probably wrongly associated with the “Mulberry Harbours”.

My father used to refer to your father’s book as “The invaluable Jack Coote”. Even now whole sentences and even paragraphs from 1970s and earlier editions come to mind - following the line of the deeper water into the Blackwater in wind over tide, the buoys in the entrance to Walton Channel being carried over the bank they mark on the ebb, finding the Pye End buoy by lining up the house with two gables with the lower lighthouse…

What were those concrete barges?

There were a lot of ferro lighters built during the Great War; ferro concrete rather than ferrocement as they have reinforcement more like a concrete lintel and gravel in the mix not just sand. They seem to be everywhere on the east coast, including a few at West Mersea in Besom Creek and Mersea Marine

 

[Concerto]

The concrete lighters were frequently converted into houseboats as there were dirt cheap to buy. Back in the 1990's there were 2 lighters that had been sunk by knocking some holes in the bottom and then abandoned in a creek close to the route of the Medway Tunnel. 2 ex army guys startered clearing out the mud and repaired the holes in the hulls. They got them floating and started building a deck. Then along comes a legal notice to stop work as they sat on the compulsory purchased land. They pulled out most of their materials. Guess what happened next. A digger was used to break them up. They could have been moved quite easily and made a cheap home for both guys. I had spoken to them several times and watched their progress as I worked closed by.

There was also a Thames barge that had been there for years as a houseboat. He was told to move it to the otherside of the creek, which he did. Unfortunately on the first tide, she broke her back. This was also destroyed with a digger.

 

[Jan Harber]

Thanks Jan!

I could not bring to mind what it was that the poor “Westmoreland” had her forefoot on. Of course it was one of those concrete pontoons that one used to see everywhere, and which I probably wrongly associated with the “Mulberry Harbours”.

My father used to refer to your father’s book as “The invaluable Jack Coote”. Even now whole sentences and even paragraphs from 1970s and earlier editions come to mind - following the line of the deeper water into the Blackwater in wind over tide, the buoys in the entrance to Walton Channel being carried over the bank they mark on the ebb, finding the Pye End buoy by lining up the house with two gables with the lower lighthouse…

What were those concrete barges?

We were always told that the concrete barges were used in the Mulberry harbours at the Normandy landings. However, a bit of recent research suggests that they were originally commissioned earlier than this, in 1940, and built in their hundreds by different construction companies for use as aviation fuel carriers. Wates, who were later involved with constructing the Mulberry harbours, built many of them in the West India Docks. Reinforced concrete was used because there was a shortage of steel.
As has been mentioned, apart from the ones forming Hoo Marina, there are plenty of others still around including 16 or so on Rainham Marshes, and, I think, the ones in Walton Backwaters. They have often been used as flood defences. There is one at Queenborough used as a sort of overflow mooring pontoon.
A dumpier development of these barges, known as ‘Beetles’, were used to support the floating road/bridge sections of the Mulberry harbours. The larger concrete Mulberry caisson was known as a ‘Phoenix’, the remains of one of these lies off Thorpe Bay/Shoeburyness.
It looks as if the original concrete barges may have been towed to the Normandy landings carrying fuel or supplies but they did not form part of the actual Mulberry Harbours.
Here endeth the lesson… I’m sure there are people out there who can shed more light…

 

[Kukri]

1940 was a good year for the British Portland cement industry - all those pillboxes and tank traps as well as the barges - but I suppose things only got better in 1943/44 when Bomber Command and the USAAF were covering East Anglia and Lincolnshire with bomber airfields, each with three concrete runways, taxiways, etc.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

I think there are one or two at Burnham on the front near the Marina. When I was a lad in the sixties they were sailing schools. We were under the impression that they were probably thrown together but seem to have lasted well.

I wonder if any came up for sale in "Exchange & Mart" after the war . Brilliant publication for dreaming schoolboys .