Red Sails over the Medway exhibition now at Sun Pier House, Chatham

Fambridge River Festival – Sunday 24 May 2015

Here’s the flyer for the Fambridge River Festival on Sunday 24 May.   SSBR will be there.   We shall have our Archive open for the day and will also have a tent by the riverside with lots of information about Thames sailing barges.  

SSBR will be at Fambridge Festival

Great news  –  there’s going to be a Fambridge Festival at North Fambridge Yacht Station on Sunday 24th May, and SSBR will be there.

Our Archive will be open and one of our committee will be there to show you the vast collection of photographs, books, documents and other artifacts about Thames sailing barges.   Sterling work has been done over the years by our Archivist, Don Wright, ably assisted by Society Secretary, John White, in getting all this treasury of information catalogued and properly stored.  (Picture shows John and Don outside the Archive.)

Then down by the river, we shall have a gazebo with display panels and literature about the Society of Sailing Barge Research, and our committee will be very

Membership form

happy to talk to visitors about barges and the Society.   Our books and magazines will be on sale and we shall, of course, also have membership forms there.   At £20 a year it is great value and you will receive our two excellent publications, Topsail annually and Mainsheet twice a year.   And members receive occasional books published by the Society for Sailing Barge Research free of charge;  last year there were two excellent such freebies, Still in the Samphire, the Society’s 50th anniversary history, and The Prowess of Charlie Fielder. 

The festival will coincide with the Old Gaffers Association 30th Anniversary Crouch Rally visit to the North Fambridge Yacht Club.   There will be gig racing on the river, and stands including those taken by the Coastguard, the RNLI, a sail-maker, and many more.   sb Ironsides will be present. 

More details nearer the date.

 

Barge Exhibition at Ware

Richard Walsh, SSBR Vice Chairman, writes:-

An exhibition entitled “From Ware to the Sea – The History of Sailing Barges”

Lady of the Lea taking part in the 2010 Thames Barge Match

opens at Ware Museum (SG12 9AL) on 6th May for 9 weeks.    I have pulled this together with the help of SSBR colleagues and others, in my spare time, when not organising this year’s Mark Boyle Memorial Thames Sailing Barge Match on 13th July, finishing at Erith for the first time in 117 years!

The exhibition conveys a brief history of the genre; details spritsail barges built in Ware; looks illustratively at ownership, crews, destinations and cargoes; the Henry Dodd Barge Match history; the anatomy of a barge; a 1:24 scale model of SB Kathleen with her history time-line in words and pictures; barge construction and sail making with the tools of both these skills on display; and the model of SB Lady of the Lea from the London Canal Museum.

Ware Museum is an independent museum run by volunteers and supported by Ware Town Council, East Herts District Council and the Ware Society.          Entry is free but a donation of £2.00 is suggested.

Ware Museum,   The Priory Lodge,   89 High Street,   Ware,   Hertfordshire,   SG12 9AL.

Opening times:-       Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday     from 11.00am to 4.00pm.

                                   Sunday and Bank Holiday Mondays                  from 2.00pm to 4.00pm.

Tel:   01920 487848        www.waremuseum.org.uk        Registered Charity No. 295169