Tag: Hugh Perks

Noble Life

Noble Life DVD

Noble Life DVD; film by Simon North, picture of DVD by Matt Care

Through the post comes my copy of “Noble Life” the new film by Simon North, as premiered aboard Cambria while she was in St Katharine Docks recently. At 1 hour 42 minutes this is a good long one, a film to sit down and bask in while you are enjoying an evening’s relax, not one to fuss through quickly when you have a million and one other things on your mind. And it will reward that relaxed basking being a delicious and rich mixture of archive clips, stills, film and interviews in the barge context as Simon, narrating goes exploring and fact finding, trying to re-discover the barges and barge places he knew in the 60’s and 70’s.

 

I thoroughly enjoyed it and especially the more recent stuff which has all happened since I decamped to this land of no Thames barges. I have seen the Facebook stuff and read the comment, but felt I was sneaked in to the Dedication Service along with Simon’s camera, and taken along on the Sea Change Sailing Trust trip last year where they carried a token few bags of cement on the route of Cambria’s last trip in trade – Tilbury to Ipswich. Then, they carried cattle cake, Simon tells us. This time they had to contend with waiting to come out of Tilbury while a huge tanker chugged past, they enjoyed a visit from Air-Sea Rescue where a Sea King chopper winched a man down on to the deck for a cup of tea.

 

It was good to see Dick Durham aboard for the first part of this trip and there is some nice interview with him. There is nice interview too with Richard Titchener (of Sea Change) who talks through the reasons behind their choice of the barge and their reasons for doing sail training as well as more recently, their reasons for trying to buy their own barge (have their own replica built from new, which can be done for nearer £600k than our own £1.4 million price tag). Interviews too with plenty of other barge and Thames related heads – Hugh Perks, Tony Farnham, Jeff Gransden, Frank Spice (snr), Boss of Volunteers, Basil Brambleby, Bob Roberts’s two daughters and a former Thames Lighter-man among others.

 

There is also, as you’d expect, whole sections of high quality, beautiful footage of barges sailing and racing in recent years as well as plenty of archive footage of barges and dock activities, lighters rafted up like a log-jam, cranes, loading and unloading, pictures of barges deep laden and so on.

 

This is a DVD well worth adding to your own private archives and collections of barge ‘stuff’. It is only £13.00 and Simon can be contacted on artbargestudio@gmail.com.  My copy and others were for sale aboard on the day of the premiere but that was purely for the premiere event.

 

Meanwhile, Thank You Basil for sending me this copy and thank you to Simon and all the team for producing such an interesting and enjoyable film.

St Katharine’s Dock Classic Boat Fest

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Cambria against the Tower Hotel at St Katharine’s Dock, Pic by Matt Care

You’ll know if you have been following this blog, that ‘we’ are currently moored up in St Katharine’s Docks right by Tower Bridge and the Tower of London. We are part of the St Kat’s Classic Boat Festival so we are open to the public (free of charge) for the 9 days from September 7th through Sunday 15th. We are in a prime position just inside the lock entrance on the right, the first boat you come to and we can be seen for miles when we have the big logo topsail up and glowing in the sunshine; we can be seen from way across the river by anyone walking on Tower Bridge and we can be glimpsed through the access (road) archways to the flats and eateries around the basin.

 

We are being very professionally and helpfully looked after by Maggs (Margaret) Casey Kelly who is Office Manager for the Marina Office, as well as being a Cambria Volunteer and sometimes female ‘bosun’ on charter trips where we have female carers and sail trainees. The ‘office’ is also a lovely building right by the lock which contains showers and loos for berth holders as well as an Italian restaurant upstairs – luxury! St Kat’s management have also set up a nice discount for ‘boat owners’ during the festival on production of the ‘card’ when you go to eat at the marina-side eateries.

 

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Rod Stewart and Penny Lancaster drop by, Unknown Photographer – I will find out.

Having not done St Kat’s before we were not sure what to expect, though being in tourist London and having this huge, red-ochre, 75 foot advert flying, we suspected we might be busy. We were not wrong. On the first Saturday, the barge had only just locked in and been moored up, the crew (Richard T, Hilary and ‘Stretch’) had handed their young charges over to their shore-based ‘responsible adults’, tidied the barge and handed ‘us’ the keys. We were just getting ready with gang planks etc and doing a bit of shopping as the first ‘tourists’ started to arrive. They were quickly pouring on in queues and the flow went on relentlessly right round till 6 pm. Myself, Basil and Nancy Brambleby and Hugh Perks were on the ‘staff’ and we could not really manage the gang plank and count but we think we ‘saw’ anything from 700 to 1000 souls through.

 

I love this bit – proudly showing off the barge, rattling away enthusiastically about her importance, history, coming out of trade, the museum years, the rebuild and Lottery stuff and the present uses – you can just see the delight on people’s faces when you tell them about the Respite for Young Carers and the Sea Change Sailing Trust work. Cambria is just plain seen as a GOOD THING, a real hit in terms of ways to spend Lottery money.  The children (and the big kids!) love to hold the ships’ wheel and we were able to get pics of whole groups by using their own cameras. They loved to try the hammock we had slung below decks (Thank you Richard T!)  and were impressed by being able to sit in the old Skipper’s cabin aft and to tour the “new yachty bit” for’d – delighted with the galley, the cabins and the way the showers are slotted in among the curved timbers in the bow.

 

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Matt Care gets some rest on the Monday – rain and Monday stopped play a bit. Pic by Tricia Gurnett.

All life seems to pass through there. There were old men remembering their associations with the London River and how run down was St Kat’s after the war, smart ladies whose Grandfathers had been barge skippers, children of all ages, shapes and sizes and everyone in between from a Turkish lady eye-ing me through the slit of her yashmak, to the buffed ‘pretty boys’ with their fake tan and their matching ‘Jedward’ quiffs, a Taiwanese lady who asked some very tough and searching questions – she obviously knew her barges, all walks of life, colours and creeds. We even had the team from the ‘Cambria’ pub in Brixton drop by.

 

On the Sunday we were more together. We’d lost Hugh but we had been joined by Dave and Julie Brooks, so we were able to used the counter-clicker and we know we saw 919 people. Again the flow was relentless, only easing at around 18:30 when we were meant to have shut up shop. Several pots of tea were made but left to go cold and stewed where no-one had time to pour a cup and all of us had cold, un-drunk mugs of tea or coffee parked on various bits of barge. We were all elated but exhausted by close of play and delighted to have a nice quiet meal in one of the local restaurants and share a bottle of wine.

 

Monday was a whole different kettle of fish – Monday and rain, so we only saw 6 people round the tour all day, but that was a relief rather than a disaster and gave us a chance to watch some old videos of barges, wander round and look at other boats, or catch up on some kip in the hammock. Moored alongside us came the Dunkirk Little Ship, New Brittanic with her superbly stereotypic new Ozzie owner, Greg. I had to head home on the Tuesday morning and missed rock legend Rod Stewart and his wife Penny Lancaster dropping by and nicely and generously allowing us to take pictures with our staff and the barge in the background for Facebook etc.

 

That’s probably enough for this post, but let me put out an URGENT call to arms for anyone reading this who can make themselves available for all or part of THIS SATURDAY (14th September). Due to the Colne Barge Match clashing, we are a bit short of staff to man gangplanks and look after the public, so if you can help out please get in touch with Basil or Dave B, use email CambriaTrustSecretary@live.co.uk for example. You will love it and be proud to have been there.

Thank You.

Griff Presents…..

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Griff Rhys Jones presents trophies at Thames Match 2012, here to Richard Tichener, Skipper of Cambria; photo by Dave Brooks.

In a nice touch at the Thames Barge Match after-race celebrations, the trophies were presented by Griff Rhys-Jones. This pic is our man Richard Tichener collecting some of Cambria’s and sharing  joke with Griff, but I have also seen nice ones of Jeff Gransden (SB Edith May)

A quick reminder of those lectures on board Cambria while she is at Gravesend.

Cambria is currently on Gravesend Pier and will be open to the public.
Also on Wednesday aboard Cambria Richard Hugh Perks is talking at 3.30pm and 7.30pm about the Evolution of the Thames Sailing Barge. price £4.
Thursday same times Tricia Gurnett will be talking about the RNLI. price £2.
Friday there are talks at 11.30 am and 3.20pm on the Thames and Medway Canal. price £2.

AND finally, Annie Meadows from SB Kitty tells me that there is a Maritime Festival on at Ipswich in a couple of weeks, where at you can take a cruise on the Orwell River on board Kitty. “Orwell Cruises”, she says, ” during Festival on board “Kitty” built 1895. sailings are at 1000-1300 and 1400-1700

Adults £20, children £12

Sat Aug 18 & Sun Aug 19 2012 AVAILABLE

Ipswich Maritime Festival

 

 

Lectures in Gravesend

Ha. The website has just received a nice comment about a recent post which gives details of where you can go to “your best Sexy Lingerie private Online Store”. Should I approve it? Um… That’ll be a ‘No’ then.

Cambria enters Medway; Picture by Dave BrooksIn “Cambria Watch”, Hilary says “Cambria Left Maldon 6.30 am bound Brightlinsea, nice sunny sail though wet now. Cambria now on Brightlingsea Hard and first beer delivery 1.00pm tomorrow (That’s today, Friday July 13) hopefully with horse and cart”. Love to know how they got on!

Meanwhile Boss of Volunteers, Basil tells me that immediately after the Thames Match this year Cambria will be moored at Gravesend Town Pier and will be used for a series of lectures on barges, the RNLI and The Thames and Medway Canal, by the renowned expert and author Richard Hugh Perks and Friend, expert and Power Station afficionado, Tricia Gurnett.

Basil takes up the story.

“Earlier this year Sailing Barge Cambria strengthened her link with the Town of Gravesend by being the first vessel to berth on the new town pier. This followed a successful spell on the wall at St Andrews last year where she was opened to the public.

Cambria will be returning to the town pier after the Thames Barge Match 28th July and will be opening to the public from Monday 30th July through to Saturday the 4th August.
In addition Cambria will be hosting a series of interesting talks.
Wed 1st Aug “Evolution of the Thames Sailing Barge” by Richard Hugh Perks. Talks at 3.30 and 7.30
Admission £4.00. Proceeds on behalf of Cambria
Thurs. 2nd Aug “RNLI” by Tricia Gurnett Talks at 3.30 pm and 7.30 pm
Admission £2.00. Proceeds will be shared.
Fri 3rd Aug “200 years of the Thames and Medway Canal” . (Sorry, Basil does not state speaker’s name – I will find out) Talks at 11.30 am and 3.30 pm
Admission £2.00. Proceeds will be shared.
We are aware that not everyone will be able to come to enjoy any of the programmes, but it is of interest to know what is happening aboard Cambria.
If you are able to attend any / all of the events can you please, if possible, let us know. It will be good to see you and you will be very welcome on board.”
Today’s picture is of Cambria entering the Medway earlier this month and is taken by Dave Brooks.

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