Category Archives: SSBR Meetings
Advance Notice about AGM
SSBR usually has its Annual General Meeting in May, but, having considered the Coronavirus road map published last week, the Committee has decided to postpone the meeting until the autumn.
The Committee held a virtual meeting on Saturday at which it was agreed that we would aim to have the AGM in early October in order to avoid clashing with any Barge Matches which might be moved to August or September. It was also agreed to hold the meeting in Gravesend.
We can now confirm that the SSBR Annual General Meeting will be held on the afternoon of Saturday 9th October at The Three Daws, West Street, Gravesend, starting at 3.00 pm.
This is, of course, subject to there being no Coronavirus restrictions at the time which would make it impossible. The meeting will be in the Function Room on the lower floor, which is large and airy.
We are looking forward to seeing our members again, having missed them during 2020 with no AGM and no events.
We’ve missed seeing you
Yesterday should have been the Annual General 
Meeting of the Society for Sailing Barge Research, which would have been at Leigh-on- Sea.
For now we have had to postpone and we all go on in our present posts. The Society is solvent and membership subscriptions have come in well despite all the difficulties. Members will have received the recent excellent Spring issue of Mainsheet, which Charles must be complimented for putting together against all odds and Studio Six must be complimented for getting it out in the 
post. Richard is at work on this year’s Topsail although I guess he may have problems in obtaining some of the pictures, etc, he needs. Nevertheless, knowing Richard, he will overcome those problems. Tim has been busy banking subscriptions and keeping our accounts in order and John deals with queries from members, the public, TV companies and learned institutions. We all work from home except Don, our Archivist. These days he can do much of the cataloguing from home, but anything else would involve a journey from Maldon to North Fambridge, impossible in the lockdown but perhaps allowable now. He would certainly be alone at the Archive. Visitors would not be possible. It is so crammed with our over 35,000 items that no way could anyone else be two metres apart.
Between us we will continue to look after the Society, and we look forward to seeing everyone when conditions permit.
A good day for an AGM
Very well attended SSBR AGM today at The Three Daws, Gravesend. The room was full.
Chairman, Elizabeth Wood, had come to the end of her three year term of office, in which much has been achieved. She thanked all her fellow Committee members for their help to her and to the Society.
Secretary, John White, said that inquiries from people seeking information about barges on which family members had worked, etc, averaged two a week. In addition, he was working on a book about the 4,500 sailing barges for which he held records. It would probably be called something like The Barge Directory. He was making good progress with it, but there was still much to do. The earliest barge he had found was built in 1751.
Treasurer, Graham Dent, presented audited accounts for 2014, which showed a loss of £2,877, but this had been caused for good reasons. There had been extra expenditure to mark our 50th anniversary year, and members had received free of charge two books, The Prowess of Charlie Fielder and Still in the Samphire, which involved printing and postage costs. Excellent value for members. Graham thanked Chris Snelling for examining the accounts.
Membership Secretary, Margaret Blackburn, reported that membership in 2014 totalled 421, so keeping us well above what had been our target of 400. 27 new members had joined in that year. To date, in 2015, 369 membership subscriptions had been received, including 9 new members, so hopefully we would maintain our numbers and maybe increase them.
Charles Traill, Editor of the twice-yearly Mainsheet, said he was very grateful for the news and information provided to him by members and for photographs he was sent. He thanked Margaret and Brian Blackburn for proof-reading and despatching the magazine. Next year would see the 100th edition of Mainsheet published, and in the same year the annual Topsail publication would reach its 50th edition. So something special would be needed.
As well as being Editor of Topsail, Richard Walsh co-ordinates other Society publications and keeps us informed about other barge publications. Still in the Samphire by the late David Wood reflects the history of the Society gathered from Committee minutes and the recollections of David and other members, and had been published in 2014 to celebrate the Society’s 50th anniversary. Also written by David Wood, (a long-serving Committee member), together with Richard Walsh, is The Prowess of Charlie Fielder. It has received excellent reviews, including one by a distinguished reviewer who described it as “ground-breaking”.
The next Society publication, (currently being prepared), is the history of EJ Goldsmiths of Grays, the company which had the biggest fleet of sailing barges. It is being written by Graham Dent and edited by Richard Walsh, with many pieces of information about both the fleet and the Goldsmith family continuing to be received.
Our Archivist, Don Wright, reported that 2014 had been a good year for the donation of photographs, manuscripts, books, etc, to our Archive at Fambridge. More than 16,000 items had now been catalogued, with a further 4,000 partly done. Don said that members were welcome to visit the Archive by appointment, and that anyone who wished to do so should contact him.
The next item on the Agenda was the election of officers and Committee members followed by the presentation of the Society’s three trophies to the winners for the year.
Richard Walsh was elected SSBR’s new Chairman; Charles Traill was elected Vice Chairman; the other members of the Committee were re-elected, to be joined by a new member, Linda Hoy. Since the meeting, Tim Mileson has been co-opted to the Committee.
The trophy winners were:-
Half Model – Robin Neale for cataloguing the Charles Dance collection.
Colindell – Toby Lester and Linda Hoy for the restoration of sb Ironsides.
Deadeye – posthumously to the late David Wood for The Prowess of Charlie Fielder.
Chairman Emeritus, Tony Farnham, kindly donated a barge picture – a steel engraving – to be raffled for the Society’s funds.
After a break for a welcome cup of tea, two films were shown: a short dvd made by Robert Gillard of his father’s cine film of the 1966 Medway match, and one by Simon North about the restoration of sb Centaur.
See what you’re missing if you’re not a member!
SSBR AGM is on Saturday – see you there!
Just a reminder that the Society for Sailing Barge Research Annual General
SSBR Trophies at 2014 AGM, Leigh-on-Sea
Meeting is this Saturday, 9th May, at 3.00pm, at The Three Daws, West Street, Gravesend.
Elizabeth Wood will be in the chair but, having completed her three year term of office will be handing over to a new Chairman. Who will it be?
We shall also be announcing this year’s winners of the Society’s three trophies. So who will be receiving the Colindell Trophy, the Half Model, and the Deadeye?
We look forward to seeing members and friends.
More updates on Where to see Sailing Barges
Hugh Perks cleans Cambria’s brass
There’s a further update to the new Where to see Sailing Barges page.
Hugh Perks provided some more information. Tom Lagan, mate of sb Will, reminded me we had forgotten Will. And I thought of a couple of others I had forgotten.
So here’s the link to the updated page.
Where to see Sailing Barges
Don Wright, SSBR’s Archivist.
At the last Committee meeting it was felt that people who like to see sailing barges, but
are not quite as involved as some of us, simply do not know where to go to have a good chance of seeing one.
Our splendid Archivist, Don Wright, has put together a list of where to see Essex-based barges, and we have therefore put a new page on the blog showing the information. We hope to add to it with the Kent locations soon.
Click here for the “Where to see Sailing Barges” page.
Ironsides – out of dry dock and sailing in 2014 season
At last week’s SSBR Committee meeting we talked about sb Ironsides and heard that Toby Lester, owner of Ironsides, hoped to have her sailing again this summer, with more restoration work after that. A lot of new steel has been put into the barge.
Today the Ironsides Facebook page has noted that she is about to come out of dry dock and has published a series of photos of the restoration. It says:-
“Ironsides – So far this has been a very busy week as we are due to leave the dry dock next week, so lots of anti-foul and painting has been done inside and out, but hopefully she is now looking smart. Next job the rigging. “
Here are the facts about Ironsides – Staysail Class; Bob:- Swallowtail with ‘tower’ emblem on blue ground. Official No 112710, 78 ton; Built of Dutch iron at West Thurrock in 1900 by Clarke & Stanfield; 85 x 20.3 x 6.4. Owned by A.P.C.M. and sold to L.R.T.C. in 1928; she was converted to a motor barge in 1938 and traded to northern France. She was sold to Alan Reekie in 1968; re-rigged at Brentford and became a successful racing and charter barge. Afterwards owned by Mark Tower, she was based at Maldon / St Katherine’s. From 2003 she has been at Faversham for refitting. Now owned by Toby Lester and Linda Hoy who plan to have her sailing this year after an extensive refurbishment to her hull, deck and topsides.
We wish Toby and Ironsides all the best for the sailing season.
Photos courtesy of sb Ironsides.
Jack Beazley, model-maker and photographer, RIP
We heard today that Cyril Charles Beazley, (known as Jack), sadly died on 24th October at the age of 82. Jack, who lived in Dagenham, recently had a major operation lasting nine-and-a-half hours.
At the May 2011 Annual General Meeting of SSBR Jack Beazley was 
awarded the Half Model Trophy in recognition of his support to the Society in providing barge photographs and of donating the CC Beazley Collection of Photographs and Negatives to the SSBR Archive. Unfortunately Jack was not able to be at the meeting to receive the Trophy so Richard Walsh accepted it on his behalf. The photograph shows SSBR Chairman Emeritus Tony Farnham presenting the Half Model to Richard.
This year, of course, the Half Model needed to come back for its new recipient, so I went to visit Jack at his Dagenham home in June in order to collect it, and sure enough I was given more photos and negatives for the Archive.
That day I was on my way to the Queen Elizabeth Hunting Lodge at Chingford for a meeting with the Curator, and had allowed half an hour to be with Jack. In fact, I missed my meeting completely as I spent well over an hour with him. He asked if I would like to see his models and showed me where he works on them. He was currently working on a model of Cutty Sark, and showed me the very fine thread he was using for the rigging, all the plans and tools, and so on. As well as ships, he had made splendid models of railway engines, and over the years had won awards for his model-making. He also had a collection of clocks. He visited boot fairs and bought old clocks, removed and restored the mechanisms, researched the type of wooden case each clock should have, and then made it. Some of them were large striking clocks with a pendulum, and he told me that his neighbours sometimes complained about the noise of the striking in the night!
Jack Beazley was a fascinating character and I am so glad I had the chance to meet him.
(Words and picture – Tricia Gurnett)
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