Cement loading; Picture by Sea Change
David Rye comes back on with some more info on yesterday’s post. “I believe,” he says, “the ‘Stone Heaps’ are off Shotley Point, where the Orwell and Stour meet – a well used barge anchorage in the old days. I don’t think that is exactly its correct name. As to peanuts and oil, my parents worked at the Erith oil works pre-war; a huge place and way ahead of its time when built. The barges brought the sacks of peanuts down from the London docks and took away the remains in sacks as cattle feed for the Kent and Essex farms. The oil was used for margarine. Barge crews came ashore near the Erith Yacht Club for stores and ‘refreshments’ in West Street, namely the ‘Trafalgar’ and ‘The Ship’ pubs”
Thanks very much for that, David.
The barge anchorage was not over the shingle spit running out from Shotley, but further into the Orwell close into the Shotley shore – almost opposite the Fagbury buoy. Unfortunately since the extension to the huge port on the Felixstowe shore the ‘mud’ has gone or been diminished by the channel running harder into what was a fine anchorage. I have seen barges using the ‘dead’ gound upstream of the port…
Th spit is not the Stone Heaps as far as I am aware, it is a natural geographical feature due to the run of two rivers. The name did refer to areas where ballast was dumped though – however ballast was mostly, latterly, landed ashore for re-use before ships had ballast water tanks…