Welcome to the May 2024 Maritime Heritage Trust e-newsletter.
As the only national membership organisation for the maritime preservation sector, we support our members – individual ship owners and small voluntary groups – in caring for the UK's rich maritime heritage and building a strong future for historic vessels.
We look forward to bringing you news from our members, updates on our special events and all things maritime heritage in the UK and beyond.
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Image: Steam Tug BrentCongratulations to Steam Tug Brent who have secured a grant award of £97,488 from The National Lottery Heritage Fund. Explorations into the way forward will allow the continuation of the valuable restoration of the steam tug for future generations. The Trustees are immensely grateful to the Heritage Fund for granting this award and extend thanks to all those National Lottery players who have made it possible.
The historic Steam Tug Brent has been an iconic feature of the Heritage Harbour at Maldon’s Promenade Park for 50 years, having been used as a family home for some of that time. Time has taken its toll and Steam Tug Brent has been the subject of an on-going restoration project for a number of years, being funded by pubic donation alone.
This is the first major award that the Brent has received and it will allow for an eighteen month project to look into ways in which realistic plans for Brent’s full restoration can be developed, through partnerships with other local heritage and maritime organisations.
The project aims to build a vibrant community centred on the Steam Tug Brent whilst developing its potential as a training vessel and eventually a passenger carrying vessel. The award will aid the preparation of plans for building a jetty and pontoon, essential for allowing the Brent access to the Blackwater’s navigable channel, and for the berthing of visiting historic vessels. A lighter barge, a vessel with a large hold space, is proposed to act as a hub for the running of the Trust’s activities.
The project will at the same time focus on embedding the historic vessel in the identity of the area’s maritime sector activities, whilst learning from other similar projects which currently run successfully. During this investigative period there will be opportunity for members of the public and local organisations to make their contribution and the findings will be cascaded to all interested parties.
Commenting on the award, Trust Chairman, Janet Hall said;
"We're absolutely thrilled to receive this funding from NLHF, as it presents a tremendous opportunity not only for the future of Brent but also for the benefit of Maldon."
Over the last six months, the Trustees of the Steam Tug Portwey Trust Ltd have undertaken an options appraisal on the future location of Steam Tug Portwey in light of growing challenges including rising mooring fees and a drop off in volunteers.
The Trustees have announced:
'We had a very serious look at the Exeter Heritage Harbour in Devon which offered Portwey a new berth in Exeter’s historic dock on the Exeter Canal. We would like to thank Jon Bell, Hannah Hurford and the Exeter Heritage Harbour Group for their interest and for coming up to visit Portwey earlier this year. Although Exeter was a very attractive proposition, as a lively and accessible visitor destination, we had to rule it out because of the distance Portwey would have to be towed to get there and the need to create, from scratch, a new group of volunteers with the skills to maintain and operate her.
We also had an offer from Chris Bannister, the owner of the well-known steam tug, Challenge, to take on Portwey, which will involve the creation of a new charitable trust, to be called the Steam Boat Trust, to manage both vessels. It is Chris Bannister’s intention to base both tugs on the River Medway in Kent. Although the Steam Boat Trust will not be a membership organisation as the present Portwey Trust is, the new charity will be looking for volunteers and supporters. Challenge already has an active volunteer group and is steamed regularly.
We are grateful to National Historic Ships UK and the Maritime Heritage Trust for the enormous help they have given us in researching alternative homes for the tug.'
Read the full statement here.
Image: Medway QueenThe Medway Queen marked their Centenary Anniversary this month with a week of celebrations starting with a Memorial Service in Rochester Cathedral for an invited crowd of people with family connections to the ship at all stages in her career, to remember all those involved who are no longer with us. This was well attended, and members of the cathedral’s regular congregation were joined by some 200 invitees representing past crew, passengers and MQPS.
The ship then welcomed a steady stream of visitors taking the guided tour of the ship. Many had been at the previous day’s service and having travelled some considerable distance they were keen to see the vessel itself. Attendance was far higher than a normal busy Saturday would have been, 100 people had indicated that they would attend. The guides and the shop on board Medway Queen were kept busy. A feature on board was a Dunkirk diorama featuring a model of Medway Queen at the East Mole taking on troops.
The Trust also hosted a reception for invited guests on board Medway Queen. Besides those at the Cathedral, the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, Lady Colgrain and representatives of the emergency services joined in the celebrations. The Ensign was attached to the ensign staff at the stern of the ship and hoisted by two of the sea cadets under the watchful eye of Admiral Lord West. The cadets and veterans then joined the assembled guests on board for refreshments. There were the usual speeches, and a Centenary Plaque was presented to Medway Queen by Howard Brooks (Vice Commodore) and Heather Dennett of the Association of Dunkirk Little Ships.
The week ended with the usual Saturday open day on 27th April, enhanced by a visit from a flotilla of boats from the Rochester Cruising Club, led by the Dunkirk Little Ship “Maimonde”. As hoped for, this day was much busier than we would usually expect with a good crowd of visitors and the crews from the boats. As you can imagine, this all took a great deal of planning and organising. The Medway Queen Preservation Society offer a grateful vote of thanks to Pam Bathurst and her sub-committee.
The fund-raising possibilities have not been forgotten and a range of Medway Queen Centenary merchandise has been commissioned. The merchandise is now available and can be viewed and purchased from the Medway Queen Visitor Centre ME7 1RX when open to the public (Saturdays from 11am to 4pm (last admissions 3pm)) and from the “shop” on the Medway Queen website: www.medwayqueen.co.uk.
Just to re-assure you, it's still there! Following big changes to its constitution led by President Joao de Almeida, an almost completely new Board was elected at its meeting in Lisbon on 14 January and is busy getting the new regime up and running (transfer of the website and content from Germany to Portugal is not proving straightforward!). A big achievement was holding a European seminar on Heritage Harbours at a special workshop on 13 January.
You can watch the unedited recording of the event here including a presentation on the Heritage Harbours initiative by MHT Co-Chair Henry Cleary at 6:01:44.
Some of the highlights are contained in a new issue of the EMH Newsletter. If you would like a copy please email support@maritimeheritage.org.uk.
Another big change is that the Secretary of EMH is now Dr Scott Pereira, Vice-President of MHT and a veteran of EMH meetings over the last 25 years, often using the classic motor yacht Lilian to help host proceedings. We hope to have an interview with Scott in the next issue.
