Works on Horsey Island and West Mersea

[nortada]

Have got the dogs off there in the past. Surely below the HW mark can't be privately owned?

As there are some with long memories here, is it true the channel from Titchmarsh was out (left a bit) and across and then down the Dardanelles Creek? There's a wildfowlers small bridge/dam at the Titchmarsh end, but I've heard that was the way out years ago before that bridge/dam was put in place.

We also gone on dog release duties on Horsey Island but mostly it is thick mud rather than golden sands and I expect any addition will be more of the same. As to who owns it - don’t know?

It is popular myth that twitchers blocked the Dardanelles - not sure why?

 

[ianc1200]

It is popular myth that twitchers blocked the Dardanelles - not sure why?

It's certainly there (I've bumped my kayak over it at HW & been up to it at other times).

I've seen the small scale sailing barge come right up close and anchor just the other side of the bridge/dam.

 

[Marmalade]

Is the intention that the spoil wil increase the flow into Hamford and Stone Point by narrowing and therefore deepening the channel?

 

[AntarcticPilot]

It's certainly there (I've bumped my kayak over it at HW & been up to it at other times).

I've seen the small scale sailing barge come right up close and anchor just the other side of the bridge/dam.

And I just looked on Google Earth, and it shows up on there. However, I must admit that I doubt it would ever have been deep enough for many yachts except at extreme high tide.

 

[Tomahawk]

It's certainly there (I've bumped my kayak over it at HW & been up to it at other times).

I've seen the small scale sailing barge come right up close and anchor just the other side of the bridge/dam.

Did the MMO grant a license?

 

[Kukri]

The blocking of the Dardanelles… yes my memory seems to stretch that far back… no it wasn’t twitchers … it was us!

The Dardanelles was deepening and threatening to replace the Twizzle as the main channel to and from The Wade between Kirby le Soken and Horsey Island.

 

[tillergirl]

Did the MMO grant a license?

See #1 All licenced by the sponsors. The cost of the licences is not insignificant

 

[Tomahawk]

See #1 All licenced by the sponsors. The cost of the licences is not insignificant

Crossed posts..
I was referring to the closure of the Dardanelles in post 21

 

[Kukri]

Crossed posts..
I was referring to the closure of the Dardanelles in post 21

Above my pay grade. I would think that the Titchmarsh family are likely to know. My father and I kept a boat in the then new Yacht Trust basin and then on a Bedwells mooring in the Twizzle with the dinghy at Titchmarsh from 1973 to 1984. I recall the blocking of the Dardanelles being spoken of by my elders and betters.

 

[nortada]

Thanks for all of this interesting background on the Dardanelles, which is part of privately owned Horsey Island.

I have sailed this area since 1994 and for the past 20 years been based in Walton and a member of the Walton & Frinton Yacht Club, (WFYC) keeping a boat in Titchmarsh Marine and then the Walton Yacht Haven (The Pond).

Years back (1994/5) I sailed the Dardanelles in a Merlin twin keel (draught 1+m) on a rising tide, got stuck, chickened out but because the channel was so narrow had, to back the main and sail out. Didn’t try that again but surprised that the Dardanelles presented any threat to flow in the Twizzle or Titchmarsh Marina.

To date, I have just listened to the ‘Club Elders’ (whose families found the WFYC) yarning about ‘past glories’ but when next in their company I will do a little digging about the truth behind the blocking of the Dardanelles. Most of the local land is owned by the Eagle Family.

Just to clear any confusion, Horsey Mere is in Norfolk. The large expanse of water between Horsey Island, (which dries) is known as The Wade. There is a causeway (marked by withies) that links Horsey Island to Kirby le Socan. Parts of this causeway can be a hazard crossing The Wade on a dropping tide - hence the withies, to identify to mark safe passage. It is interesting, safe, if a bit muddy, to walk the causeway at low water.

Whilst some of the Wade drains along The Twizzle and to sea via the Walton Channel, the bigger volume flows to the sea via Kirby Creek over the now defunct oyster beds and Hamford Water, to the sea.

Drainage of The Walton Channel is augmented by water from The Walton Mere, via Foundry Reach. Walton Mere is the artificial lake dug close to the WFYC behind Walton, to provide water for Walton Mill and flush Foundry Reach so that barges could access the Mill and the Foundry. After the Mill was demolished and Foundry closed, Walton Mere became a boating lake but over the years, because breaches in the retaining wall were not repaired, The Mere has silted, dramatically reducing to flow of water.

The WFYC is built on the site of the Walton Mill.

History lesson over, I will pick the brains of those who know and report back.

 

[tillergirl]

Crossed posts..
I was referring to the closure of the Dardanelles in post 21

Ah

 

[PeterWright]

Did the MMO grant a license?

Closure of the Dardenelles predates the MMO by many years.

Peter.

 

[Kukri]

Thanks for all of this interesting background on the Dardanelles, which is part of privately owned Horsey Island.

I have sailed this area since 1994 and for the past 20 years been based in Walton and a member of the Walton & Frinton Yacht Club, (WFYC) keeping a boat in Titchmarsh Marine and then the Walton Yacht Haven (The Pond).

Years back (1994/5) I sailed the Dardanelles in a Merlin twin keel (draught 1+m) on a rising tide, got stuck, chickened out but because the channel was so narrow had, to back the main and sail out. Didn’t try that again but surprised that the Dardanelles presented any threat to flow in the Twizzle or Titchmarsh Marina.

To date, I have just listened to the ‘Club Elders’ (whose families found the WFYC) yarning about ‘past glories’ but when next in their company I will do a little digging about the truth behind the blocking of the Dardanelles. Most of the local land is owned by the Eagle Family.

Just to clear any confusion, Horsey Mere is in Norfolk. The large expanse of water between Horsey Island, (which dries) is known as The Wade. There is a causeway (marked by withies) that links Horsey Island to Kirby le Socan. Parts of this causeway can be a hazard crossing The Wade on a dropping tide - hence the withies, to identify to mark safe passage. It is interesting, safe, if a bit muddy, to walk the causeway at low water.

Whilst some of the Wade drains along The Twizzle and to sea via the Walton Channel, the bigger volume flows to the sea via Kirby Creek over the now defunct oyster beds and Hamford Water, to the sea.

Drainage of The Walton Channel is augmented by water from The Walton Mere, via Foundry Reach. Walton Mere is the artificial lake dug close to the WFYC behind Walton, to provide water for Walton Mill and flush Foundry Reach so that barges could access the Mill and the Foundry. After the Mill was demolished and Foundry closed, Walton Mere became a boating lake but over the years, because breaches in the retaining wall were not repaired, The Mere has silted, dramatically reducing to flow of water.

The WFYC is built on the site of the Walton Mill.

History lesson over, I will pick the brains of those who know and report back.

This windmill (“Archer’s Mill”) stood where the W&FYC Club House now stands.

 

[Kukri]

This tide mill stood where Halls’ boatyard slipways now stand. I can remember spending 2s/6d as a small boy to hire a sailing clinker pram dinghy on the boating lake which the mill pool in the foreground had been turned into.

 

[AntarcticPilot]

I've had a quick scour through the documents on the HHA website, and found very little (I found nothing, but I haven't read every word) about the navigability of the Walton channel. Has anyone asked the HHA whether the issue of the navigability of the channel past Stone Point was considered, and what their assessment of the impact on that channel (if any) would be?

 

[turnstone]

We also gone on dog release duties on Horsey Island but mostly it is thick mud rather than golden sands and I expect any addition will be more of the same. As to who owns it - don’t know?

It is popular myth that twitchers blocked the Dardanelles - not sure why?

The Dardanelles was dammed about 15 years ago as the ebb tide was running out of Horsey Mere into the Dardanelles instead of the Walton channel and the powers that be were worried that the Twizzle/Walton channel would silt up also it was eroding Stone point away.

 

[ianc1200]

The Dardanelles was dammed about 15 years ago as the ebb tide was running out of Horsey Mere into the Dardanelles instead of the Walton channel and the powers that be were worried that the Twizzle/Walton channel would silt up also it was eroding Stone point away.

The story I've often heard.

Completely OT, I managed to take Storm - 1910 Bawley yacht & 3' 3" when Maurice Griffiths owned her and now I think a little deeper - across the Wade/Causeway on Saturday on a 4.2m tide, starting about 45 mins before HW. Never had less than 1.7m water depth. I like to think MG would have been proud.