South Quay, King's Lynn

The weekend in black and white is here.

Something quite old and something relatively new

In the centre foreground the little King's Lynn ferry has, in one form or another , been shuttling folk across the river for over seven centuries, since 1285 so they say. The service does not run on Sundays or Bank Holidays and the last ride is at 6.30pm. I must get round to trying it out sometime.

Looming in the background are the grain silos of the port of King's Lynn with a 25,000-tonne capacity storage along with drying and screening facilities. It seems, a few years ago, there used to be silos to the south of town that were considered an "eyesore" and have been demolished. These however are a soothing balm to the optics.

Out to the Wash

Here we are again down the Fisher Fleet; this time with a bit of day light. If you carry on past the fishing boats you eventually fetch up at the river, the Great Ouse, which flows out into the Wash. The river no longer flows in its own free way but in a man made channel, dead straight. King's Lynn used to be much nearer the sea but land reclamation, drainage and such things means it's now a few miles inland.

The weekend in black and white is here.

Comrade of Hull

Well here's a little bit of nautical history moored up in the Marina. The Comrade is a type of craft known as a Humber Keel designed to carry cargoes around the Humber and Trent. The design is ancient and thought to be based on Viking longships with a shallow draught and a square rigged sail. Comrade was built in 1923 and could get as far inland as Sheffield. It's last commercial voyage was in 1975 when it was acquired and renovated by the Humber Keel and Sloop Preservation Society. Of course it has its very own picture filled and informative website.  There's also a pretty comprehensive history of the vessel here.

Two men in a boat

Here the little coble Harlequin is putting out into relatively calm North Sea to check lobster or crab pots or maybe just for a trip round the bay. If you click on this picture and peer a bit at the horizon you can just about make out some wind generators, these are part of what is going to be the world's largest offshore wind farm. This will keep the lights on in a million homes just so long as the wind blows.

The theme for City Daily Photo this month is the 'beauty of simplicity'.

Blue barge

This old barge or lighter with the odd name of Poem 25 is a fixture in the old harbour of the river. I've shown it before here but that was before colour was invented.

Weekend Reflections are here

Ocean Seeker

Maybe it's just me but watching ships carry out intricate manoeuvres in a fast flowing current attempting to get into a narrow dock gate there always the vague wish, no that's too strong a word, idea maybe, lurking at the back of your mind they might, I don't know, overshoot or run into the bank or some such. There's probably a word for it: schadenfreude infantilis or some such.  Thankfully it never happens, at least not while I'm standing there taking pictures. This survey ship made its stately way up stream then halted and performed a very smooth almost balletic right-angled turn to enter Albert Dock. No bumps, no scrapes, no fun at all.

The Weekend in Black and White continues here.

Riverhead Apartments, Driffield

Nothing much changes or so it seems at this place. It was just like this when I first came here nearly half a century ago. Maybe the warehouse apartment developments are newish but it looks much the same.

The weekend seems to have crept up on us again. See it in black and white here. Or see its reflection here.

Humber Bore

I'm told that every tidal estuary has a bore, that is when the incoming water overcomes the outflowing water and surges upstream. In the UK the Severn bore is particualrly well known with brave souls surfing along it for miles. The Humber then also has a bore (apart from me) it's just not that noticeable near Hull. This is not to say that the tidal wave isn't rushing at great speed (25mph or so past Hull) and some violence up this narrowing inlet and indeed upstream there is, on the Trent, a bore known as the Aegir or Eagre. All these twice daily flows can and do shift sandbanks around causing shippping channels, at least upstream of Hull, to alter course, sometimes overnight. Which leads us to this little boat, the ABP survey vessel Humber Ranger, busy keeping an eye on things at the bottom of the stream and producing up to date navigation charts every two or three months.  

Messing about with boats

Here's a small boat slowly motoring into the marina some time back in August. Couldn't find a use for this picture or rather collection of pictures stitched up until this month's City Daily Photo theme of 'movement' was announced.

The price of failure

I have mentioned Neptune, the tidal power scheme, before and also how it proved to be not quite the raging success that had been hoped. A few weeks ago I noticed that it was no longer moored just past the Deep and thought that it had gone for good. Imagine my surprise then to see this little boat with the unmistakable yellow cabin just chugging upstream the other day. Off to the scrapyard no doubt.

Thou shalt have a fishy on a little dishy ...

You turn your back for a moment and strange things pop up all over the place. I'd not been in town for a couple of weeks (yes it's possible to live without the delights of Hull) so it was a bit of surprise to find kitted fishes adorning the buildings and what can only be called woollen condoms for the Maritime Museum's guns. The reason for all this madness: 'Follow the Herring' celebrating the old east coast herring fishing industry. A major feature is the knitting of a 'coat for a boat' which you can see below, as I say they get up to all sorts when you're not looking ...

14th century font full of fish

Coat for a boat

Open Season

Seen here reflected in the Transport Museum's window the Arctic Corsair, Hull’s last sidewinder trawler, is open to visitors from today. The museum runs guided tours round so if you're interested it's probably best to book a tour (here), also with the present parlous state of the Council's finances who knows how long this feature will be available. Did I mention it was free? Yeah, I know, why don't they charge?

The weekend reflections are here.

Always look on the bright side of life ...

Normal service will be resumed tomorrow ....

Poem 25

Long before all this City of Culture malarky the river Hull had its own 'poems' .... This rusty old barge has been moored here by itself for years or so it seems, it was there three and half years ago when I posted this. I came across a picture of Poem 15 here, part of a site that has hundreds of images of Hull's old harbour filled with barges which, if you're interested, you can find here. 

The Weekend in Black and White is here

Shovette

Nice name for a push tug, Shovette, here moored for some reason by the horse wash.

Four Legs Good ...

An extremely gloomy day with that rarest of things a warm stiff Easterly breeze blowing and Bridlington was fairly empty (and mostly shut) at this end-of-season time. If we'd gone the day before it was, we were told, "wonderful with bright blue skies"and "just like Summer". Hmmm. Anyhow in the harbour and quite out of proportion to its surroundings this hulk was quietly tethered up. It's a dredger of sorts, a much bigger version of the one I posted here. Looks like some serious digging going to to be done.

Meanwhile out in the bay another four legged beast was lurking but more of that in the next post.

Arctic Corsair

Here's another view of the old trawler Arctic Corsair moored, if that's the right word for a boat that's firmly stuck in the mud, by the museum quarter. This is taken from Hull's new swing bridge which has already acquired its own reputation for attracting ne'er-do-wells; some have been reported jumping into the river during hot weather. Personally I say leave them there, better drowned than duffers, if not duffers won't drown.

Ship No 275

So finally I have clambered aboard the Spurn lightship that has been moored in the Marina for years. I didn't go below decks as I'm allergic to screaming young brats seemingly unsupervised and running amok. Some other time maybe.

Skyline

Here the high rise delights of Anlaby Road's hinterland punctuate the sky with a gentle toxic glow in the evening sunshine. From this distance it doesn't look too bad but this is probably as close as you'd want to get. It's rumoured people pay rent and taxes for the privilege of living in these places I find that difficult to believe. The über observant amongst you will have noticed that the boat in the foreground is HMS Explorer which I posted about before.