LIVE THAMES SHIPPING MAPS
Maps
I have a confession to make – I have no personal experience of the Tideway –
the rest of
the Thames I have punted several times. But I draw my line at Teddington.
The Tideway section is here to complete the picture –
but this part of the picture is at least second hand.
I have enjoyed exploring this section in books and on the web –
but alas never by boat.
Forget all you ever heard about the Thames being an ancient river – not more than a
few hundred thousand years ago it was a tributary of the Rhine which it
joined in the centre of what is now the North Sea.
“OLD” Father Thames indeed! Young Master Thames – mostly less than fifteen feet deep!
The Thames Estuary, 1840
1912: The River of London by Hilaire Belloc -
Hilaire Belloc has a perceptive view of the coming 1st World War - though
had he known how awesome an event it was to be in the shattering of so many lives and
traditions, I suspect he would not have so willingly allowed blame to be
attached to the two rivers.
Through the flats that bound the North Sea and shelve into it imperceptibly,
merging at last with the shallow flood, and re-emerging in distant sandbanks
and less conspicuous shoals, run facing each other two waterways far inland,
which are funnels and entries, as it were, scoured by the tide.
Each has at the end of the tideway a narrow, placid, inland stream,
from whence the broader, noisier sea part also takes its name.
Each has been and will always be famous in the arms and commerce of Europe.
Each forms a sort of long street of ships crowded in a traffic to and fro.
For each has its great port.
The one Antwerp, the other London.
The Scheldt is the name of the first, which
leads to Antwerp,
and makes the opportunity for that great market of the world.
But the second is the River of London, much older in its destinies, and
probably more destined to endure in its functions of commerce.
I know not how to convey that picture in the mind, which the eyes do not see,
and yet by which a man is haunted if he has read enough of books and seen the maps,
when he comes up through the Narrows of Dover Straits from the wide, empty seas
three days behind and knows that there lies a choice between the eastern and the western gate.
That choice is in the case of every ship determined long before.
She has the dull duty to do of turning to the right or to the left,
and her orders bind her to the river of the Netherlands or of England as it may be.
But if you will consider many centuries and the changing adventures of business you will still -
as you pass northward between the two shores of Flanders and of England,
and as you see their recession upon either side of the northern way which opens before you -
understand that doubt upon the rivalry of the two rivers which is soon to be so deeply
impressed upon the politics of our time.
I could think of the Scheldt and of
the Thames as two antagonists facing each other
before conflict across a marked arena, which is that of the shallow, tumbling,
and yellow water of the North Sea;
or as two forces pitted against the other, streams of which would force the other back
if it could find the strength;
or as two Courts in a perpetual jealousy one of the other, intriguing and making
and losing point after point in a game of polity.
When the statisticians have done their talk - and very brainless it is -
of resources and of metals, two opposing lives are left standing behind either of the great towns,
and either of the great sea rivers.
The one is the experiment of the modern Germanies;
the other is the founded tradition of England;
and the more closely a man considers each of these, the greater contrast does he discover
between the causes of either's energy of come and go.
Shivering Sands Fort
1874: The Floating Light of the Goodwin Sands, R.M. Ballantyne -
A dead calm, with a soft, golden, half-transparent mist, had settled down on Old Father Thames,
when, early one morning, the sloop Nora floated rather than sailed towards the mouth of that
celebrated river, bent, in the absence of wind, on creeping out to sea with the tide ...
It may be that many thousands of those who annually leave London on voyages,
short and long - of profit and pleasure - have very little idea of the intricacy of the channels
through which they pass, and the number of obstructions which, in the shape of sandbanks,
intersect the mouth of the Thames at its junction with the ocean.
Without pilots, and an elaborate well-considered system of lights, buoys, and beacons,
a vessel would be about as likely to reach London from the ocean, or vice versa, in safety,
as a man who should attempt to run through an old timber-yard blindfold would be
to escape with unbroken neck and shins.
Of shoals there are the East and West Barrows, the Nob, the Knock, the John, the Sunk,
the Girdler, and the Long sands, all lying like so many ground-sharks, quiet, unobtrusive,
but very deadly, waiting for ships to devour, and getting them too, very frequently,
despite the precautions taken to rob them of their costly food.
These sand-sharks (if we may be allowed the expression) separate the main channels,
which are named respectively the Swin or King's channel, on the north, and the Prince's,
the Queen's, and the South channels, on the south.
The channel through which the Nora passed was the Swin, which, though not used by
first-class ships, is perhaps the most frequented by the greater portion of the coasting
and colliery vessels, and all the east country craft.
The traffic is so great as to be almost continuous; innumerable vessels being seen in
fine weather passing to and fro as far as the eye can reach.
To mark this channel alone there was, at the time we write of, the Mouse light-vessel,
at the western extremity of the Mouse sand; the Maplin lighthouse, on the sand of the same name;
the Swin middle light-vessel, at the western extremity of the Middle and Heaps sand;
the Whittaker beacon, and the Sunk light-vessel on the Sunk sand
- besides other beacons and numerous buoys.
When we add that floating lights and beacons cost thousands and hundreds of pounds to build,
and that even buoys are valued in many cases at more than a hundred pounds each,
besides the cost of maintenance, it may be conceived that the great work of lighting
and buoying the channels of the kingdom - apart from the light-house system altogether -
is one of considerable expense, constant anxiety, and vast national importance.
It may also be conceived that the Elder Brethren of the Corporation of Trinity House -
by whom, from the time of Henry VIII down to the present day, that arduous duty has been
admirably performed - hold a position of the highest responsibility.
The North coast of Kent is the land's last accompaniment to the waters of the Thames as they
merge into the North Sea.
Kingsgate is really round the corner at the North Foreland.
Map Margate
View Larger Map
View Larger Map Steetmap
Live tide reading for Margate
For an online live view of the tide in the estuary see the barrier page
To the North of Margate on the other side of the estuary is Walton on the Naze
Live tide reading for Walton
And between the two are the
Thames Estuary Forts
There is a live tidal gauge on Shivering Sands.
86 Frith photos of Margate.
Westgate
Reculver
Site of Reculver Church Towers
Reculver Towers
Map Reculver, Site of Roman Fort
View Larger Map
Reculver Roman Fort, plan made in 1923
669: First Reculver Church. An early Christian chantry was established here by
St Augustine's pilgrims from Rome.
12th century: The second Reculver Church, being the building now demolished with the two towers still standing,
was erected and incorporated Saxon remains from the first church.
1530s: Leland -
a quarter of a mile or a little more divides Reculver from the sea to the north of it
1600: Plan shows the distance as 180 yards
1650s: Somner says the church is endangered
In the 15th Century there were two well-connected sisters, one of whom was the Abbess of Faversham. One of the sisters fell ill and when she recovered, the two of them decided to go and give their thanks at the shrine of St. Mary, Bradstowe (or Broadstairs). They sailed from Faversham but off Reculver were hit by a storm which wrecked their ship. Both sisters were saved but one of the two died as the results of exposure. The remaining sister then added two spires to the existing towers and they were thereafter known as the "twin sisters".
-1708: Battely says that in his lifetime the waves were devastating the north face of the fort.
1799: Reculver Church in 1799 -
Reculver Church in 1799
1807 & 1858:
Kent Archaeological Society Visual Records
1808: Reculver Towers, in 'The Antiquarian and Topographical Cabinet'-
The village of Reculver is situated on the sea coast of the county of Kent,
about nine miles south east from Margate, and thirteen miles north west from Canterbury;
and notwithstanding its present solitary appearance, was formerly of considerable note.
In the time of our Saxon ancestors it was called Reculfcestre,
and a thousand years has only softened the name,
the present inhahitants pronouncing it Rêculvër.
The Romans, who had here a station, gave it the name of Regulhium;
and it was a situation of great importance to them,
when the sea formed a large harbour between the county of Kent and Isle of Thanet,
in which their fleets rode in safety, protected at one entrance by the castle of Richborough
and at the other by that of Reculver, both being indifferently styled Rutopiœ.
Within the memory of man the waves have done more mischief here than in several preceding centuries;
for, till lately, many houses and a small field stood beyond the churchyard;
now all are swept away.
The storm and high tide of the 15th January 180S,
experienced so severely along the adjacent coast, fell with redoubled fury on Reculver,
and carried away part of the churchyard wall, within a few feet of the Church.
Reculver Towers, 1808
1809: Body of church demolished, but the towers with spires were retained as a navigational aid
and maintained by Trinity House.
The third Reculver Church was built a mile inland.
1823: The Reculvers in "Voyage Round Great Britain" by William Daniell -
The Reculvers in "Voyage Round Great Britain" by William Daniell
Drawn & Engraved by Willm. Daniell. Published by W. Daniell, Cleveland Street, Fitzroy Square, London. Augst. 1 1823
1878: A fourth Reculver Church was built on the site of the third.
1892: Reculver Towers, Francis Frith -
Reculver Towers, Francis Frith, 1892
1915: The remains of the second Reculver Church -
Reculver Church 1915
1945: Reculver marks the eastern end of the 3Km course over which the world speed record was set at
more than 606mph in a Gloster Jet propelled Meteor plane.
1955: Reculver Towers, Francis Frith -
Reculver Towers, Francis Frith, 1955
The modern Reculver (Fourth) Church -
moving panorama
St Mary's, Reculver
Herne Bay
View Larger Map
54 Francis Frith photos of Herne Bay
Swalecliffe
2 Francis Frith photos of Seaview Holiday Camp 1955
Whitstable
17 Francis Frith photos of Whitstable, 1950s & 60s
The Swale
Isles of Sheppey
This is a real island, containing Sheerness, with its only road and rail access being at the
new Sheppey Crossing and Kingsferry Bridge.
[ The "ey" on the end of "Shepp-ey", and other islands, is related to the word "Eyot" ("Ait")
used throughout the Thames.]
Map: Isle of Harty
Harty is really a separate island, and until comparatively recently, the neighbourhood was known
as the "Isles of Sheppey", which included the main island and the smaller ones of Elmley and Harty.
The place was known as:
1086: Hertei
1100: Heartege
1242: Herteye
1610: Harty
It is separated from Sheppey by Capel Fleet, over which there is now a causeway.
In the 1893 floods it was reported that the Fleet had grown to a width of 100 yards.
In Edward Hasted's day it was tidal - the sea flowed through Windmill Creek, Capel Fleet and
Musssels Creek - with a ferry across the Fleet.
As late as 1893 the Ferry House was reported as being at the bottom of the road from Capel Hill
on the left hand side. This ferry replaced a bridge which Hasted referred to as the
"Tremseth Bridge broken by the violence of the sea in the 2lst year of Edward 1."
The dry led either side of the Fleet indicates that once the arm of the Swale between Sheppey
and Harty was up to a mile wide.
During the Great War the Royal Engineers erected a bailey bridge across the East Swale to Harty.
Map: Harty Church, St Thomas the Apostle
1089:
Harty church built. The hamlet that it served has long gone but the building is a
real architectural treasure.
There is a legend that the North Aisle was built as a shelter for pilgrims in the reign of Henry III -
possibly on their way by ferry: North, to follow the route to Walsingham;
and South, to Becket's shrine at Canterbury.
Writing to a former Rector, apologising for his inability to attend the Harvest Festival at Harty,
the then Poet Laureate, Sir John Betjeman said -
Alas I shall have to console myself with memories of the Church in its splendid isolation, with sea birds wheeling by and the Thames so wide as to be open sea, and air so fresh as to be healthier than yoghurt (unflavoured).
A regular worshipper said -
This is a much loved place of worship, and with one accord the congregation finds here a strength that seems to come from the very simplicity, the beautiful remoteness, and the absolute tranquillity of the place. It is an ideal setting for prayer and meditation, and although typically English, it has been remarked that it has the "feel" of pilgrimage churches in remote parts of Bavaria, Austria and other parts of Europe where Heaven and Earth seem to meet.
It is substantially unchanged although much of the wood has been replaced over the centuries. In recent times the tower has had to have many wooden pan tiles replaced after repeated attacks by woodpeckers. One remarkable feature is that despite being only yards from a local 240v power distribution line the church has no electricity and is lit by wick oil lamps and candles. -
Harty Church
© Copyright Glyn Baker and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence
Shell Ness
Leysdown on Sea
Warden
Warden Point
Map: Minster Abbey
The ancient Abbey Church of The Blessed Virgin Mary and St Sexburgha.
664: The Minster was founded by Queen Sexburgha in AD 664 on land given to her by her son
Eorcenberht, the King of Kent.
Sexburgha was the daughter of Anna (or Enna) King of East Anglia who - it is believed -
had married the sister of Saint Hilda, the celebrated Abbess of Whitby.
Sexburgha's sisters were Etheldreda and Withburga, also destined to become saints.
This life of Saint Sexburgha (also spelled: Sexburga and Sexberga) is from "Lives of the Saints"
by S. Baring-Gould:
"Sexburgha, the eldest, married Ercombert, King of Kent.
It was she who moved him to destroy the last idols which remained in his kingdom.
After 24 years of conjugal life she became a widow (AD 664) and was regent for four years
of the Kingdom of her son Ecgberht.
As soon as Ecgberht was old enough to reign in 668, Sexburgha resigned the regency and taking the veil
from the hands of Archbishop Theodore of Canterbury, founded a monastery in the isle of Sheppey,
at the mouth of the Thames, separated from the mainland by that arm of the sea in which
Saint Augustine had baptised ten thousand Saxons.
The monastery took the name of Minster. She there ruled a community of seventy-seven nuns
until she learned that her sister Etheldreda had taken refuge in the marshes of their native Ely.
Sexburgha then resolved to return to her own country and become a simple nun under her sister.
She was received with enthusiasm at Ely. Upon the death of Etheldreda Sexburgha replaced her as abbess
and ruled the great East Anglian monastery for 20 years before she too found her rest
near the tomb which she had erected to her sister."
[ The splendidly named Queen Sexburgha was a relative of mine being the wife of Eorcenberht,
whose father was King Eadbald, and whose grandfather was King Eadelberht I,
the first Christian King of Kent. John Eade.
Disappointingly the "Sex" is as in "Essex" and Sexburgha probably means Essex dweller.
One imagines a princess with white socks ...
It is possible that she was the great x7 grandmother of Alfred the Great.
Her feast day falls on July 6th (rather appropriately for a Thames Saint -
usually during Henley Royal Regatta) ]
In the ninth century the Priory was destroyed by Vikings
In the eleventh century it suffered at the hands of Earl Godwin
William the Conqueror partly rebuilt the church
1113-1139: Archbishop de Corbeuil rebuilt the church and priory
1536: At the dissolution of the Monasteries the church lost its nuns and entered a difficult time being
owned by the local estate.
Minster Abbey
1881: Minster Abbey re-opened for worship.
Minster Abbey
1885: Dickens's Dictionary of the Thames, Map, The Nore to Canvey Island -
The Nore to Canvey Island, Dickens, 1885
The Nore
1732: The first lightship known was placed to mark the Nore sands.
The Thames by C Fox Smith -
The first light-vessel on the Nore Sand was established by a King's Lynn barber named Thomas Hamblin and his partner Avery early in the eighteenth century under a licence from the Trinity Brethren; but their claims for tolls on passing shipping were so excessive that the licence was withdrawn and the light taken over by Trinity House.
1885: Dickens's Dictionary of the Thames -The Nore -
Nore Light, about 50 miles from London Bridge. The Nore light-ship is the first sea light to be passed on leaving the port of London. It is the first in order of seniority among its kind, for at this station the first light-ship set afloat on the coast of England was permanently laid in the year 1730. The original hull was that of a sloop, with a large lantern at each end of a yard laid across the mast.
The Nore Lightship, 1730-1845
An improvement in the method of illumination in 1825 rendered one lantern sufficient, incorporate with the mast, and showing a "fixed" light.
The Thames by C Fox Smith, shows this model from Trinity House -
Nore Lightship Model
Dickens continued -
In 1855 for purposes of distinction, the light was made "revolving" ...
The [next] Nore lightship was built of wood at Limehouse 40 years ago [about 1845],
and is 96 feet long by 21 broad;
her tonnage, 156;
hull, mast-head, and globe painted red, and the name "NORE" in large white letters
on each broadside.
The Nore Lightship built in 1845
The hollow globe at the mast-head, 6 feet in diameter, made of bent laths,
is characteristic of such craft by day; it is never removed unless when the ships
are driven from their stations.
About ten feet below it hangs the lantern,
an octagonal glass case, framed in copper, and fitting round the mast lies a great gem ring,
housed on deck by day, and hoisted as high up the mast as the shrouds will permit
by night ...
The principal function for which a light-vessel is placed is, as the name implies,
the exhibition of a warning or a guiding light at night. To prevent confusion
with lamps of fires on shore, or on board other vessels, a distinguishing character
is given to the light, which in the case of the "Nore", is called the revolving half
minute character. The effect to be produced is that a brilliant flash shall pass before
the eye of the observer every 30 seconds ...
1793:
Mutiny at the Nore
1822:
Anne Lister's Diary 1st September, the Royal Squadron at the Nore -
On deck at 4.30am to see the royal squadron [with George IV aboard] 8 or 10 miles ahead of us.
Descried 2 steamers in company with the royal yacht, Royal George that belonged to his
late majesty [George III]. One of the steamers belongs to government, the other, the
James Watt of Leith, had the royal yacht in tow.
Fine sunrise - a beautiful morning. At 8am passed another fine 44 guns, or upwards, frigate.
On deck again after breakfast at 8.15 and then passed the Royal Sovereign,
a beautifully proportioned frigate, the stern windows very much gilded and rather finely
finished externally altogether. Of course, we knew nothing of the interior.
We are now, 8.15am, 8 miles from the Nore. There is a good wind and the squadron gets on
as fast as we, but we shall come up with them in the river. ...
The captain told me we came up to the Yarmouth sands about 8pm last night,
and got clear of them about 12 i.e. ran 50 miles in 4 hours but for this we could not possibly
have come up with the squadron and if we were not detained by it, we could now manage
Tower Stairs London by 1pm.
9.15am just passing the Nore light, one single light floating, mounted on a vessel such as
on the N sands. The Thames said to commence at the Nore light and reckoned 63 miles,
by water, from London Bridge I suppose.
We near the yacht fast, the wind not so fair for his majesty, and we have put on more steam.
The bathing place of Southend like a little village or town, about opposite the Nore light.
[ George IV landed at Greenwich - see Ann Lister's description at Woolwich on the "QEII Bridge"
page and Greenwich on the "Barrier" page.]
The Coastwise Lights, Rudyard Kipling -
OUR brows are bound with spindrift and the weed is on our knees;
Our loins are battered ’neath us by the swinging, smoking seas.
From reef and rock and skerry—over headland, ness, and voe—
The Coastwise Lights of England watch the ships of England go!
Through the endless summer evenings, on the lineless, level floors;
Through the yelling Channel tempest when the siren hoots and roars—
By day the dipping house-flag and by night the rocket’s trail—
As the sheep that graze behind us so we know them where they hail.
We bridge across the dark and bid the helmsman have a care,
The flash that wheeling inland wakes his sleeping wife to prayer;
From our vexed eyries, head to gale, we bind in burning chains
The lover from the sea-rim drawn—his love in English lanes.
We greet the clippers wing-and-wing that race the Southern wool;
We warn the crawling cargo-tanks of Bremen, Leith, and Hull;
To each and all our equal lamp at peril of the sea—
The white wall-sided war-ships or the whalers of Dundee!
Come up, come in from Eastward, from the guardports of the Morn!
Beat up, beat in from Southerly, O gipsies of the Horn!
Swift shuttles of an Empire’s loom that weave us, main to main,
The Coastwise Lights of England give you welcome back again!
Go, get you gone up-Channel with the sea-crust on your plates;
Go, get you into London with the burden of your freights!
Haste, for they talk of Empire there, and say, if any seek,
The Lights of England sent you and by silence shall ye speak!
Next poem.
1906: The Mirror of the Sea, by Joseph Conrad -
The Nore sand remains covered at low-water, and never seen by human
eye; but the Nore is a name to conjure with visions of historical
events, of battles, of fleets, of mutinies, of watch and ward kept
upon the great throbbing heart of the State. This ideal point of
the estuary, this centre of memories, is marked upon the steely
gray expanse of the waters by a lightship painted red
that, from a
couple of miles off, looks like a cheap and bizarre little toy.
I remember how, on coming up the river for the first time, I was
surprised at the smallness of that vivid object - a tiny warm speck
of crimson lost in an immensity of gray tones. I was startled, as
if of necessity the principal beacon in the water-way of the
greatest town on earth should have presented imposing proportions.
And, behold! the brown sprit-sail of a barge hid it entirely from
my view.
Previous poem. Next poem.
Song: The Man at the Nore -
... Now when I was but a bit of a slip
I was put in charge of the Nore lightship
I kept my lamps in very fine style
Doing of the work according to Hoyle
Oh the raging Nore, the rolling Nore
The waves they tumble o'er and o'er
There's no such a life to be had on shore
As the one that's led by the Man at the Nore ...
Previous poem. Next poem.
1915: Nore Lightship removed. Near the position is now the Sea Reach No. 1 Buoy
Map: Shoeburyness, left bank, in Essex
(Remember left and right bank are always as going downstream
even though we are going upstream). Shoeburyness is to the north
of the estuary.
17 photos of Shoeburyness, Frith
Shoeburyness is the administrative district containing South and North Shoebury.
Shoebury was probably a Viking camp in origin.
This low lying marshy area was known for a high incidence of malaria.
2006: The Green Mark -
A GIANT tower to mark the mouth of the Thames Estuary is to be built at Shoebury.
The multi-million pound structure was designed by architects Jestico+Whiles,
and is the winning entry in a competition run by Southend Council and Gladedale Homes.
The tower, called the Green Mark, will be created at Gunnery Point, in the Shoebury Garrison housing development.
It will include a café, close to the new coastal footpath and cycle route,
with around 70 luxury apartments above, looking out across the Estuary.
Council leader Murray Foster said the winning design was chosen from several strong entries.
He added: “The council and Gladedale Homes wish to thank all of the entrants for their enthusiasm for the competition, as well as the high quality of their designs.
“We were delighted this competition prompted such a positive response.
It shows how Southend is firmly on the map for innovative designs and ideas.”
At the foot of the tower will be a new square, landscaped as a large sundial,
and planned as a focus for the routes across the Garrison site.
The Green Mark, which would signify the first northerly landfall of the Thames Estuary,
was created after Government planners insisted south Essex needed an iconic structure to rival the Angel of the North.
Ian Curry, technical director of Gladedale Homes said the Thames was one of the world’s great arteries.
“It has unlocked an island to the world,” he said.
“Shoebury marks the mouth of this great river and the Green Mark would be not only a marker for runners, cyclists and walkers, but a viewpoint and destination.
“It is a universal convention that, from the sea, each channel is marked to the starboard, or right, in green.
Tony Ingram, director of Jestico & Whiles, said the structure would be designed to address the challenge of global warming.
Among its eco-friendly features, the Green Mark will include timber from renewable sources and solar power to help with heating.
The building has yet to go through the planning process before building work begins.
1809 (or before): Picture by JMW Turner -
Shoeburyness Fishermen Hailing a Whitstable Hoy, J.M.W. Turner, before 1809
All Hallows on Sea, north east of Sheerness
Map: Sheerness, right bank, in Kent
Map: Isle of Sheppey Sailing Club Live Webcam (East of Sheerness) -
[ In the Barrier section is a five day forecast of Sheerness tides and also a live weather map ]
Sheerness as seen from the Nore, J M W Turner
1823: Sheerness -
Sheerness.
Drawn & Engraved by Willm. Daniell. Published by W. Daniell,
Cleveland Street, Fitzroy Square, London. Augst. 1 1823
1828: Sheerness -
Sheerness in
Westall And Owen's Picturesque Tour Of The Thames (1828)
S. Owen delt. R.G. Reeve sculpt. Published 1828 by R.Ackermann, 96 Strand, London.
8 Frith photos of Sheerness
2000: Sheerness. Now importing cars -
Sheerness in 2000, Adrian Warren Photo Library
Map: River Medway
597: On Christmas Day in the Swale at the mouth of the Medway,
10,000 Saxons were baptised by Saint Augustine, following the example
of their King Eadelberht I
Previous poem. Next poem.
1667:
Dutch Invasion, Rudyard Kipling -
If wars were won by feasting,
Or victory by song,
Or safety found, by sleeping sound
How England would be strong!
But honour and dominion
Are not maintain-ed so,
They’re only got by sword and shot
And this the Dutchmen know!
The moneys that should feed us
you spend on your delight,
How can you then, have sailor-men
To aid you in your fight?
Our fish and cheese are rotten,
Which makes the scurvy grow –
We cannot serve you if we starve,
And this the Dutchmen know!
Our ships in every harbour
Be neither whole nor sound,
And when we seek to mend a leak,
No Oakum can be found,
Or, if it is, the caulkers,
and carpenters also,
For lack of pay have gone away,
And this the Dutch men know!
Mere powder, guns and bullets,
we scarce can get at all;
Their price was spent in merriment
and revel at Whitehall,
While we in tattered doublets
From ship to ship must row,
Beseeching friends for odds and ends –
And this the Dutchmen know!
No King will heed our warnings,
No Court will pay our claims –
Our King and Court for their disport
Do sell the very Thames!
For, now De Ruyter’s topsails
Off naked Chatham show,
We dare not meet him with our fleet –
And this the Dutchmen know!
Better still spend that money on education and fair trade and justice and we will no longer need barbaric armaments!
Map: Wreck of the Richard Montgomery, right bank
1944: Anchor dragged onto a sandbank where she broke her back.
1.5 miles from Sheerness, 5 miles from Southend
and only 700 feet from the Medway Channel.
Wreck of the Richard Montgomery
BBC News on the Richard Montgomery -
Map: Southend
Southend in
Cooke's Views on the Thames (1822) [75] Drawn by S. Owen. Feby 1, 1819.
The Royal Hotel and Royal Terrace seen above were erected in 1797.
In 1801 and 1803 there were Royal visitors to bathe in the sea.
137 Frith photos of Southend!
Map: Southend Pier
1830: A wooden pier was built
1875: The wooden pier was bought for £10,000 by the Southend Local Board.
There were concerns over its safety.
1877: Plans for a new iron pier.
This was shorter than the present pier, ending at the Old Pier Head.
1891: Barge collided with pier.
1889: July, Pier opened for pedestrians in July.
1890: August, Pier electric railway opened.
1897: Pier extension to allow more mooring space for steamboats.
1898: January, the new Pier Head was opened. A ketch collided with the pier.
1908: An upper deck was was added to the Pier extension.
The pier could then seat some 8,000 people, with a bandstand and six shops.
The Thames Conservancy vessel ‘Marlborough’ collided with the pier.
1921: a concrete vessel ‘Violette’ collided with the pier.
1925: The pier had over 1.25 million visitors.
1929: the Prince George Extension brought the total length to 1.34 miles.
1933: the barge ‘Matilda Upton’ collided with the pier.
1939: the pier closed on 9th September and became HMS Leigh for the duration of the War.
84,297 ships, in 3,367 convoys, sailed from the pier.
1945: the Pier reopened.
1949: the pier received more than 5 million visitors.
1959: the Pier Pavilion was destroyed by fire,
a ten pin bowling alley was built to replace it.
1974-79: major repairs, including a complete reconstruction of the 'pier walkway'.
1976: Pier Head fire.
1980: Plans for closure.
1982: Pier railway rolling stock scrapped.
1984-86: reconstruction. Cost £1.3 million.
MV ‘Kingsabbey’ sliced through the pier leaving a 70 foot gap.
One gentleman in a toilet was
seriously "inconvenienced" - but lived to tell the tale.
1995: the Pier bowling alley was destroyed by fire.
2005: 9th October a serious fire broke out on the pier.
Southend Pier, 2005
© Copyright
Glyn Baker
and licenced for reuse under this
Creative Commons Licence
(nearby pictures by Glyn Baker)
The Mirror of the Sea: Joseph Conrad -
But soon the course of the ship opens the entrance of the Medway,
with its men-of-war moored in line, and the long wooden jetty of Port Victoria,
with its few low buildings like the beginning
of a hasty settlement upon a wild and unexplored shore.
The famous Thames barges sit in brown clusters upon the water
with an effect of birds floating upon a pond.
On the imposing expanse of the great estuary the traffic of the port
where so much of the world's work
and the world's thinking is being done becomes insignificant, scattered, streaming
away in thin lines of ships stringing themselves
out into the eastern quarter through the various navigable
channels of which the Nore lightship marks the divergence.
The coasting traffic inclines to the north;
the deep-water ships steer east with a southern inclination, on through the Downs, to the most remote ends
of the world.
In the widening of the shores sinking low in the gray, smoky distances the
greatness of the sea receives the mercantile fleet of good ships that London sends out upon the turn
of every tide.
They follow each other, going very close by the
Essex shore.
Such as the beads of a
rosary told by business-like shipowners for the greater profit of the world they slip one by one
into the open:
while in the offing the inward-bound ships come up singly and in bunches
from under the sea horizon closing the mouth of the river between Orfordness and North Foreland.
They all converge upon the Nore, the warm speck of red upon the tones of drab and gray,
with the distant shores running together towards the west,
low and flat, like the sides of an enormous canal.
Upstream to PLA Boundary
Estuary
PLA
QEII Br
Barrier
Tower Br
Custom Ho
London Br
; Frost Fairs
Cannon St Rb
The Great Stink
Southwark Br
Millenium Br
Blackfriars Rb
Blackfriars Br
Waterloo Br
Charing Cross Rb
Westminster Br
Lambeth Br
Vauxhall Br
Victoria Rb
Chelsea Br
Albert Br
Battersea Br
Battersea Rb
Wandsworth Br
Fulham Rb
Putney Br
Hammersmith Br
Barnes Rb
Chiswick Br
Kew Rb
Kew Br
RICHMOND
Twickenham Br
Richmond Rb
Richmond Br
TEDDINGTON
Kingston Rb
Kingston Br
Ditton Slip
Hampton Br
MOLESEY
SUNBURY
Walton Br
Desborough Cut
SHEPPERTON
Chertsey Br
CHERTSEY
M3 Br
Laleham Slip
PENTON HOOK
Staines Rb
Staines Br
Runnymede Br
BELL WEIR
Magna Carta Is
OLD WINDSOR
Albert Br
Datchet
Victoria Br
Black Potts Rb
ROMNEY
Eton
Windsor Br
Windsor Rb
Windsor Slip
Elizabeth Br
BOVENEY
Dorney Lake
York Cut
Summerleaze Fb
MonkeyIsland
New Thames Br
BRAY
Bray Slip
Maidenhead Rb
Maidenhead Br
Below Boulters
BOULTERS
Cliveden
Hedsor
COOKHAM
Cookham Slip
Cookham Br
BourneEnd RFb
Quarry Woods
A404 Br
MARLOW
Marlow Br
Bisham
TEMPLE
HURLEY
Medmenham
Culham Ct
Aston Slip
HAMBLEDEN
Temple Is
Fawley Ct
Remenham
Regatta
Phyllis Ct
Henley Slip
Leander
Red Lion
Henley Br
Angel on Br
Landing
Hobbs Boatyard
Hobbs Slipway
MARSH
Hennerton
Bolney
Wargrave
Shiplake Rb
R.Loddon
SHIPLAKE
Sonning Br
SONNING
Dreadnought
K&A Canal
CAVERSHAM
Reading Br
Caversham Br
Reading Slip
Purley
MAPLEDURHAM
Hardwick Ho
Whitchurch Br
WHITCHURCH
Hartswood Reach
Gatehampton Rb
Goring Gap
Goring Br
GORING
Swan
CLEEVE
Moulsford
Moulsford Rb
Papist Way Slip
Winterbrook Br
Wallingford Br
BENSON
Shillingford Br
R.Thame
DAYS
Burcot
Clifton Hampden
Clifton Church
Clifton H Br
Barley Mow
Long Wittenham
CLIFTON
Appleford Rb
Sutton Courtenay
Sutton Br
CULHAM
Culham Cut Fb
Abingdon Slip
Abingdon
Abingdon Br
ABINGDON
Nuneham Rb
Nuneham
Nuneham Park
Radley Boats
SANDFORD
Rose Island
Kennington Rb
Isis Br
Iffley Mill
IFFLEY
Oxford Rowing
Isis
Donnington Br
Riverside Slip
Boathouses
Punting
Lower Cherwell
Upper Cherwell
Islip
Head of River
Salters Steamers
Folly Br
Bacons Folly
Oxford Fb
Osney Fb
Weir stream
Osney Rb
Bullstake Stream
Osney Marina
OSNEY
Osney Br
Four Rivers
OLD RIVER
CANAL
Medley Weir Site
Medley Fb
Bossoms
Perch
Trout
GODSTOW
Godstow Nunnery
Godstow Br
Thames Br
KINGS
River Evenlode
EYNSHAM
Swinford Br
Oxford Cruisers
PINKHILL
Farmoor
Stanton Harcourt
Bablock Slip
Arks Weir Site
NORTHMOOR
Harts Fb
//Rose Revived
Newbridge
//Maybush
River Windrush
below Shifford
SHIFFORD
Shifford Fb
Tenfoot Fb
Trout Inn
Tadpole Br
RUSHEY
Old Mans Fb
RADCOT
Radcot Cradle Fb
Swan Inn
Radcot New Br
Radcot Old Br
GRAFTON
Eaton Hastings
Kelmscott
Eaton Fb
BUSCOT
Bloomers Hole Fb
Trout Inn
St Johns Br
ST JOHNS
Halfpenny Br
Marina Slip
LIMIT
Inglesham
Hannington Br
Kempsford
Castle Eaton Br
Marston Meysey
A419 Br
Cricklade
SOURCE?
THAMES HEAD
SEVEN SPRINGS