Does the team think.....

[BG1]

Just downstream of Hambledon Lock on the Berks side is a field with loads of posts in the river 2-3' out from the bank. I presume they're there for the Henley lot to moor against. Thing is, they're in the river and not in the bank, and yet there is a sign displaying mooring fee charged. How does that work then? If you're tying to a post in the river, you're not mooring to the bank! Has anyone used these posts or any others, and did they get charged? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[Brayman]

Someone should ask Steve on Fawley Meadow, he'll know but I'm not sure it's him that would collect along there. I might see him at the weekend so will try and remember.

 

[Captain Coochie]

I assume like a trot mooring . The owner pays for the rent on the river bed and charges you for what he has put there .

 

[byron]

Those moorings are in the river for regatta week. The posts have a boarding plank in them, the idea being you lay against them and can get on and off your boat in comfort. Stakes are also provided for tieing to and your rubbish is collected. The farm who owns most of Henley river banks and great tracts below Hambledon earns absolute fortunes every year, car parking, the fair, moorings, bars, hospitality units, the list goes on.

 

[ianc1200]

The signs certainly are Steve's. There are the platforms constructed for the Regatta week, and were still in last time i went by, but there's also a lot of much older and permanent posts (which have the notices stapled to them) but these are generally much closer in to the bank except where the bank has fallen away. Only rarely have I seen anybody moor against these, but given the nature of the bank it would be difficult to moor there without them. A few years ago these had both Steve's signs and "No Moorings" as well.

IanC

 

[BG1]

The point I was trying to establish was that the posts are in the river and not on farm land so how can they still exercise mooring rights. Some posts are 3-4' out and most don't have landing planks (if any). What about if they were 5-6' out where the bank had eroded? Surely it is EA's rights. Where does the land owners rights end?

 

[rr_123]

Riparian rights are to the centre of the river.

You are not allowed to impede navigation though, which posts away from the bank do.

R

 

[byron]

During regatta the farm puts boarding planking in.
In common with many Riparian owners they probably own the river bed to the centre of the river so the posts are in their own land.
As a matter of interest the dude that buys the right to collect mooring fees does not get the fee for Regatta nor any other major event held there such as the Thames Valley Rally etc.

 

[TrueBlue]

Your basic question has been answered by other posts on this thread.

However I should like to point out that the short posts have been placed there to protect the bank and possibly as a first step in installing netting, gabions etc at a later date.

Last year - or perhaps previously, there were notices asking folks NOT to moor as they were for bank protection - but they have fallen off or probably been removed by person or persons unknown. I think Copas who own the land realised that they could get some funds by erecting landing stages for Henley events, so they've made the longer poles permanent.

Although I'm "against" mooring fees (well avoid them by parking elsewhere), if a landowner makes an effort to provide a good quality mooring, then "we" should be prepared to pay for the privilege. I just anchor in the "bay" opposite....

It's just another daft feature of Common Law that you are liable to pay to tie up to a tree, pole, or ring, but not to drop an anchor - given that the bank and the neighbouring river bed is owned by the same person. The legal justification is probably horrendously complicated.

 

[ianc1200]

"The point I was trying to establish was that the posts are in the river and not on farm land so how can they still exercise mooring rights. Some posts are 3-4' out"
Isn't this because the banks have fallen away over the years? Some have a sort of beach behind, so are well in the water.

Re this field, my grandfather (on leave from the Navy) and mother & her aunt were fishing here in 2nd World War when a rocket came over (were they doodlebugs?), my mum says very low, and the engine cut out! They laid flat, it went over and exploded.

IanC

 

[TrueBlue]

[ QUOTE ]
"The point I was trying to establish was that the posts are in the river and not on farm land so how can they still exercise mooring rights. Some posts are 3-4' out"
Isn't this because the banks have fallen away over the years? Some have a sort of beach behind, so are well in the water.

[/ QUOTE ]

Ah, yes, this is called erosion, caused by boats mooring (haha) and more likely the flows from Hambledon lock. The landowner is trying to recover his field by banging posts into where he thinks the edge should be and laying a fabric net through the posts, planting reeds or special grasses and backfilling behind. I understand from Byron's posts elsewhere that EA charge him a King's Ransom in rent for any mooring pole placed through their water.

[ QUOTE ]
Re this field, my grandfather (on leave from the Navy) and mother & her aunt were fishing here in 2nd World War when a rocket came over (were they doodlebugs?), my mum says very low, and the engine cut out! They laid flat, it went over and exploded.

[/ QUOTE ]

From your description that would be a V1 - wonder why it was called a doodlebug - Quite a natty design, 'cos it was a pulse jet pointed roughly in the direction of Blighty. When the fuel ran out the motor stopped, the thing nose dived and Bang! Not at all accurate, but then it was a terror weapon.

The later V2 was the father of modern rockets; had a guidance system and was impossible to stop or shoot down with the then available armaments.

Not a lot of people konw that.

 

[pheran]

I think the 'doodlebug' was named after an insect (Australian??) because of the characteristic buzzing sound. I was an ankle-biter at the time these flying bombs were falling on London. My mother recalls that our family used to get a head start in the dash for the air-raid shelters because I could hear them, and reacted, quite some time before the adults. Nice to know I had my uses! /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

If you think of the V1 as the first cruise missile (which it was) then that puts a new perpective on things. Not my point, but that of my mother who remembers them flying overhead on their way across Kent to London. Prompted speculation among the flyers of the family over whether or not it would be possible to tip a Tomahawk with a wingtip in a similar style as done occasionally to a V1. The consensus was "probably, once, and be very fast with the punch out"