East Coast ports

DanTribe

DanTribe

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After reading recent threads about tidal access, it occured to me, why did East Anglians build the seaports where there isn't much sea?
E.G.
Maldon, Tollesbury, Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Woodbridge etc.
 
DanTribe said:
After reading recent threads about tidal access, it occured to me, why did East Anglians build the seaports where there isn't much sea?
E.G.
Maldon, Tollesbury, Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Woodbridge etc.
Click to expand...

Pillage I reckon !

A bit more time to hide the valuables and the women.

They still had to pay up anyway by the sound of it though.

Or else ........................
 
1/ Perhaps for the same reason that the Romans used London - further downstream it was too wide to build a bridge.
2/ No need to build ports to withstand storms.
3/ Better access for customers before railways arrived - both freight and passengers - close to major cntres of population.
 
DanTribe said:
After reading recent threads about tidal access, it occured to me, why did East Anglians build the seaports where there isn't much sea?
E.G.
Maldon, Tollesbury, Colchester, Manningtree, Ipswich, Woodbridge etc.
Click to expand...

And Rowhedge, Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea - even though B'sea is/was a Cinq port.

Could it be that all the ports where there is sea, were bagged by the Navy - Orford, Kingsfleet (now blocked off), Felixstowe (up to WW2) and Harry Jarber?
 
Southwold is now one of the biggest ports in the UK handling millions of tonnes of jet fuel each year in VLCC's.


Hard to believe but true.
 
I could not imagine a VLCC getting into Southwold, ship to shore transfere yes but where? I didn't see any signs when we were there earlier this year but then the local brew might have been partly responsible:D
 
rudolph_hart said:
And Rowhedge, Wivenhoe, Brightlingsea - even though B'sea is/was a Cinq port.
Could it be that all the ports where there is sea, were bagged by the Navy - Orford, Kingsfleet (now blocked off), Felixstowe (up to WW2) and Harry Jarber?
Click to expand...
I expect if you were to look at very old maps of the coastline you would find it was dramatically different hundreds of years ago. Over here in Kent for instance (over here?? I'm in Nieuwpoort writing this!!) the Swale was a major route from the Foreland to London for large ships, and much wider and deeper than it now is, and Sandwich (also a Cinque Port) was on the coast, not miles up a shallow winding R.Stour as it is now.
 
petehb said:
I could not imagine a VLCC getting into Southwold, ship to shore transfere yes but where? I didn't see any signs when we were there earlier this year but then the local brew might have been partly responsible:D
Click to expand...
If you were in the Nellie (Lord Nelson) you'd be able to see the odd one or two on the horizon when you ambled, pint in hand, to the sea front.

That's just the most inshore ones at anchor. When we sailed back from Den Helder last year my count was up to 18 ships off that part of the coast before I lost interest (it was windy). In years gone by there were none.

I can understand the local's concerns - one spill & that's a lot of tourism $ down the spout.
 
OK, I will come clean.

Twelve miles off shore the VLCCs anchor and smaller product carriers 30,000 to 100,000 tonners come alongisde to off load for delivery to places like Hull, Rotterdam etc.,.

The place is called Southwold Off Limits. One of my clients managed to drag their anchor right across the telephone/data link cable between UK and Netherlands. Small cable, 20 tonne anchor one has to give!! Very,very expensive.

My disbelief, until I had seen it, was profound at being told there is a problem with a 250,000 tonne ship laden with jet fuel at Southwold.

No, or very minimal, risk of pollution on shore there; since the tides run parallel to the coast and the prevailing wind would take it to the cloggy coast.
 
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