"Dardanelles" Walton backwaters

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backwaters

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Hello all,

In the three years we have been based at Titchmarch, including countless journeys out to sea, we have never seen a boat in the small side-channel called the "Dardanelles" to the east of Horsey Island.

Has anyone ever 'ditch-crawled' up the channel, or for that matter anchored overnight in there?

The charts seem to indicate that there are a few holes within, with water at spring low tides, but that there is a bar (for the lack of better term) between the Dardanelle channel and the main Walton channel. However the Google Earth photos always show water connecting the two.

Any local knowledge is appreciated as I'd like to take our small sailboat in which draws .6 metres.

-Jason
 
Do you Facebook? if so look up Birch Hall Adventures, an outward bound style organisation operating from Birch Hall farm which backs on to the backwaters from the 'Flemming's Hard', Alex Philips runs it, sails out of there and knows the area like the back of his hand. If anyone knows he will.
 
Rhoda Rose said:
With a draft of 6m I think it could be tricky. Sorry, couldn't resist :-)
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Think you will find that reads 0.6m.

If it were 6m, no problem with the Dardanelles Channel as you wouldn’t even be able to get into the Walton Backwaters.

Local gossip has it that the RSPB had a hand in rendering the Dardanelles Channel impassible to protect the interests of nesting bird life.
 
nortada said:
Think you will find that reads 0.6m.

If it were 6m, no problem with the Dardanelles Channel as you wouldn’t even be able to get into the Walton Backwaters.

Local gossip has it that the RSPB had a hand in rendering the Dardanelles Channel impassible to protect their interests of self importance.
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Fixed that for you.
 
I saw one of the smaller (about 1/2 size) sailing barges anchored at the end of the Dardanelles Creek, fairly close to Titchmarsh. I've kayaked from Titchmarsh, over the low bridge into the creek & out at Stone Point, and as I understand it until that low bridge was put in many boats would go that way rather than Twizzle/Walton Creek.
 
Minn said:
I thought the reason for blocking off the Dardanelles was not because of birds but because the channel was deepening and was starting to seem as if it would become the main channel and thereby cut off the Twizzle / Foundry Reach?
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Sorry Minn as local with a boat in Walton I just don't buy The Dardanelles would ever take over from either The Twizzle or Foundry Reach.The Dardanelles.jpg
A quick look at the local topography will show that the large volume of water in The Wade dredges both The Twizzel and The Walton Channel; as it has for many (possibly hundreds) years.

As to Foundry Reach (as the name suggests) a man-made cut was dug to give access by water to The Walton Foundry (now defunct). The Mere was dug to flush Foundry Reach. Unfortunately, as The Mere silts there is less water to flush Foundry Reach. With predicable results but it is still possible to navigate Foundry Reach above half tide - it drys completely at low water.

The Dardanelles would would only have had minimal impact on the other Backwater waterways.
 
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nortada said:
Sorry Minn as local with a boat in Walton I just don't buy The Dardanelles would ever take over from either The Twizzle or Foundry Reach.View attachment 68347
A quick look at the local topography will show that the large volume of water in The Wade dredges both The Twizzel and The Walton Channel; as it has for many (possibly hundreds) years.

As to Foundry Reach (as the name suggests) a man-made cut was dug to give access by water to The Walton Foundry (now defunct). The Mere was dug to flush Foundry Reach. Unfortunately, as The Mere silts there is less water to flush Foundry Reach. With predicable results but it is still possible to navigate Foundry Reach above half tide - it drys completely at low water.

The Dardanelles would would only have had minimal impact on the other Backwater waterways.
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As a former local whose boat was moored in the Twizzle from 1972 to 1983 my recollections are a little different.

The Mere was the pound for the tide mill which was paired with the windmill that stood where the WFYC club house now stands; you can see the remaining sluices under Hall’s sheds.

Hope this link to an old photo works:

http://www.putmans.co.uk/OldWalton_River_Assets/1596-Water-Mill-Windmill-.jpg

Foundry Reach dried at low water in the 1970’s and I dare say it always has done.

The flow through the Dardanelles was considerable and I recall the talk of damming it.
 
Minn said:
As a former local whose boat was moored in the Twizzle from 1972 to 1983 my recollections are a little different.

The Mere was the pound for the tide mill which was paired with the windmill that stood where the WFYC club house now stands; you can see the remaining sluices under Hall’s sheds.

Hope this link to an old photo works:

http://www.putmans.co.uk/OldWalton_River_Assets/1596-Water-Mill-Windmill-.jpg

Foundry Reach dried at low water in the 1970’s and I dare say it always has done.

The flow through the Dardanelles was considerable and I recall the talk of damming it.
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Don't dispute a word you write.

My observations are based from 1994 to current times.

As you say Foundry Reach has always dried at low water and nothing else has changed. A look at the map provided suggests that as it is small in comparison with the other waterways The Dardanelles Channel would have little impact on the overall flow of water around the Backwaters.

My sources are many in later life who have lived their whole lives in Walton and come from families whose roots go back many generations.

Bye and large they see the hand of the RSPB in some of the decisions taken. However, so far as I can tell the Dardanelles was never formally dammed. It has just silted but can still be used at high water by shallow drought craft

I can say no more.
 
I've heard from two different sources;

When Titchmarsh was first opened, the way to go was across the creek, through where the dam is now, & out via the Dardenelles/Stone Point. It was dammed as the Walton Channel was silting up. Lost contact with this source, he's sold his boat.

Secondly, another boater who very unfortunately is no longer with us, who used that route, was appalled (his widow has told me several times) the bird watchers got that route closed up.
 
ianc1200 said:
I've heard from two different sources;

When Titchmarsh was first opened, the way to go was across the creek, through where the dam is now, & out via the Dardenelles/Stone Point. It was dammed as the Walton Channel was silting up. Lost contact with this source, he's sold his boat.

Secondly, another boater who very unfortunately is no longer with us, who used that route, was appalled (his widow has told me several times) the bird watchers got that route closed up.
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I did The Dardanelles Channel in a 1M drought bilge keeler near the top of a spring tide in the summer of 94 and very nearly came to grief - had to sail out backwards - so never tried that again!

When did John Titchmarsh build and open Titchmarsh Marina?

As an aside, I believe the Titchmarsh family now own the Mere but it is too far gone for economic recovery and is rapidly reverting to a tidal meadow. This could have some effect on Foundry Reach and access to The Walton Town Hard.

Whatever the history, it is now a done deal.
 
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Perhaps it got deeper? As stated towards the beginning of this thread I've seen a small Thames Sailing barge (Cygnet?) anchored at the top end of Dardanelles Creek, fairly close to Titchmarsh, in the last couple of seasons. The two stories I heard about craft using that route were from owners of a Westerly Konsort & a large Bawley (I'm guessing drawing about 3' 6").
 
Tichmarsh Marina opened in 1971. As a small boy, in the early 1960s, I used to cycle to Walton and blow my pocket money on the hire of a lug rigged sailing pram on the Mere, to teach myself how to sail, with a copy of John Fisher’s “Starting to Sail” in one hand, and a copy of “Secret Water” in the other, so to speak, and I do just remember the Tichmarsh boatyard in Mill Lane. It was at the top - nearer the town than Halls’ yard.

The photograph above explains why the road to the WFYC club house is called Mill Lane and there are some pictures of the hire boats on the Mere and of John Tichmarsh building the marina in the same place.

Anyway, my foggy recollections of forty-five years ago include the idea that the volume of water draining from the Wade through the Dardanelles was increasing and the dam was to stop this and make it “go the long way round.”

It wasn’t that very much water was going out that way, it was that the amount “had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished...”
 
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Minn said:
Tichmarsh Marina opened in 1971. As a small boy, in the early 1960s, I used to cycle to Walton and blow my pocket money on the hire of a lug rigged sailing pram on the Mere, to teach myself how to sail, with a copy of John Fisher’s “Starting to Sail” in one hand, and a copy of “Secret Water” in the other, so to speak, and I do just remember the Tichmarsh boatyard in Mill Lane. It was at the top - nearer the town than Halls’ yard.

The photograph above explains why the road to the WFYC club house is called Mill Lane and there are some pictures of the hire boats on the Mere and of John Tichmarsh building the marina in the same place.

Anyway, my foggy recollections of forty-five years ago include the idea that the volume of water draining from the Wade through the Dardanelles was increasing and the dam was to stop this and make it “go the long way round.”

It wasn’t that very much water was going out that way, it was that the amount “had increased, was increasing, and ought to be diminished...”
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Fond memories. Do you still get back there?
 
Thanks Minn.... a very evocative video, of a stunningly beautiful boat.

It must have been very moving to part with her.

Sadly, there seems to be no sound on the sections of the video showing your interview down below, apart from the yarn, at the end, about Mirelle's glorious ocean racing background.

But a very enjoyable few minutes anyway!
 
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