A TV Show

[Lou Barron]

No doubt some of you guys would have seen this programme but it was the first time that had seen it .
I found it very interesting it was how they used the barges in the old times to take cargo up the River Thames the programme was called The Last Routes.
Sailing from Harwich and calling in to other places .
The Thames is a river that i have always been fascinated with unlike the Mersey the Thames winds and twist and it gets narrow .
I showed the docks as they were not so long ago with most of the well knowed ships bygone days big ones and smallones
the first time i sailed up the Thames was November 1940 and tied up at the Detport wharf ( i think that what it was called)but in them days it was not a very pleasant place to be .
When my wife and paid one of our visists to London we did a few river cruises up and down the river as far as the Greenwich and Kingston - upon -Thames .We also did visist a few places further up the river through Oxford and our friend took us to the start of the river the name i forget but i think it was in the Cotswold it is a river that is full of historic stories

[j.sabourn]

Louis ref. your revisiting the Thames and various cruises on same. I was brought up in my very early years in Kingston on Thames. The river cruise boats as were then, some were utilised for bringing the troops back from Dunkirk, in fact the house in Richmond park Road that my grandparents lived was rented from the owner of these boats, his name I cant remember at the moment. No doubt will come back after I have sent this. It was only a short walk down to the river, going the other way was Richmond Park which just prior to D Day was used to house thousands of American troops. Going back to Kingston now, it is hard to reconize. Your trip back to Liverpool you will find hard to reconize as well I suppose. All the best. John Sabourn.

[happy daze john in oz]

Lou there is more history surrounding the Thames than maybe any other river in the world. It has for centuries been the hub of commerce for UK, that is before the tin box arrived.

[Lou Barron]

Yes John Sabourn my daughter and her family live not far from Kingston and Richmon she lves inTeddington .My late wife and i use to go to Kingston a few times it is a great shopping area as my wife loved (not me )but i did like Kingston it is very modern and justa short bus ride from my daughters place and have been through Richmond park also the last time we was there was 2003 . i will be there for a couple of months .Strange it may seem i have seen more of the UK since i have lived inNZ than when i livedthere
Yes John it is a very interesting river

[Tony Wilding]

HI LOU, i think that must have been Deptford Creek where you were in the War, is just not far from Greenwich, i used to tie up there in the 60,s, General Steam Navigaton Co had a Wharf right on the end of Deptford Creek, was laid up there 6 weeks on a GSNC Coaster, a good trip is on a River Bus, from Tower Pier or any along there up to the London Eye, go to Greenwich not expensive, Cutty Sark is at Greenwich, about an hours trip, you get a commentry of all the interesting places, dont take the Catarmaran service, too quick, and all enclosed, its a good day out Lou. when i was 16 i travelled from southend at the mouth of the Thames right up through the Pool of London in a 16 foot motor boat with a mate for a 2 week camping holiday, got up as far as Windsor Castle, going through the Pool of London the water was black with pollution, smelt bad also, killed all the barnacles and weed on my boat. now there are lots of fish in londons river. regards, Tony W.

[j.sabourn]

Hi Louis, had an older female cousin she went for a photo shoot at Teddington Studios she was a very pretty girl. Stewart Grainger before he hit the big time used to come round to our house as did a lot of others especially when my uncles or my father was home on leave as they were all in the forces and the old piano used to come out and this was during the blackout, no one made for the air raid shelter during those times. My mother worked at the hawker airplane factory behind the cinema they trained her in 6 weeks as a turner dont think she would of passed any exams of today. Going back there now as said dont reconize. The whole street was strafed one day by a german messersmitt my mother was a bit of expanding the truth as she always said they were out to get her.The front of the porch was chipped away with bullets however, so she was lucky, this was during the time when the germans did daylight bombing runs. The big shop in Kingston then was Bentalls, believe is still there. Part of my family went south during I believe the Jarrow hunger march and stayed, the others we stayed north. Cheers John Sabourn.

[Calvin Kent]

Was it Salters Steamers? I used to help out on them during school holidays from about the age of eight. Fantastic times. I then progressed on to working for Turks Boatyard in Kingston but got in trouble when I decided to quit school and turn it into a full time sort of job when I was thirteen. Something about the truancy officer or some such nonsense. We often hired boats out to people who'd spent the day recording at Teddington and finished up in the Outrigger for a few pints and a singsong. Yes, I know I was thirteen but I was allowed to drink cider as that's not really booze is it.

Salters Steamers - Sweet Thames Run Softly - YouTube

Not sure if the link works, bit of nostalgia.

Regards
Calvin

[j.sabourn]

Had it in my mind that the name began with an H, however may be wrong. This would have been in 1943 or thereabouts, which would have made me about 7-8. However memorys are very strong of that era. As said in a previous post Lord Haw Haw came on the air as we used to listen to him as everyone had a good laugh at times. This time I can remember my grandparents being very worried as he described the mining of the old Blythmoor in the English Channel and went on about a Capt. Hogg who was a family friend where he lived in Tynemouth street name and everything he came out with. However old Hoggy got off, think he survived the loss of 3 ships. Sailed later with him as 3 2 and 1st Mate. I used to like to watch the locks at Teddington. Is like going into a foreign country now going back. Cheers John Sabourn

[j.sabourn]

Calvin was smoking my grandfathers clay pipe at 8, making home brew so called whiskey at 13 and still alive. Was that Turks boatyard was that the name of the owner? Cheers John Sabourn

[Calvin Kent]

Hi John, yes the Turk family owned the yard but I cannot recall any of the family living in the big house. Not much was going on there during that period (late fifties/sixties) apart from small boat hire and pumping out the houseboats that leaked like sieves. The front yard was more like a marine museum than a working yard and everything was run from a lean-to. Us kids talked of the "mad lady" kept prisoner in the house but I suspect it was just a ghost.

I think Ditton Cruises operated from Kingston Pier down by the Odeon but their boats were home-trade by comparison to Salters which had a galley and heads. There was/is a Harts boatyard further up near Ravens Ait at Surbiton but again I think they only did small boat hire and operated the ferry across to Home Park . I also recall a small yard in Lower Ham Rd behind the Villiers factory but that may have belonged to one of the rowing clubs on the opposite bank.

Regards
Calvin