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Report - - The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (2009/2010) | Other Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (2009/2010)

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Styru

Admin
28DL Full Member
The Purton Hulks

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In the early 1900's the City of Gloucester was a major transport hub, having excellent links to the outside world both via the River Severn and a fine network of canals, including the mighty Sharpness to Gloucester Canal - a veritable M1 of water-based transport.

These two ran close together near the village of Purton.

During the winter of 1909 locals began to express concern at the degree of erosion eating away at the narrow band of land that separated the river from the canal. After a storm induced landslip accelerated the problem it became clear that urgent action was needed.

A series of semi redundant barges were intentionally beached at high tide, and scuttled. The intention was that they would fill with silt, and, in so doing, reinforce the bank.

This proved successful, and the process of beaching unwanted boats continued for over 50 years – by the 1960's over 80 boats had made the banks of the Severn at Purton their final home. During the process, wooden barges, sail boats, WW2 concrete barges and steel vessels were added to the erosion barricade.

These form England's largest collection of abandoned shipping.

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On with some pics......

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After a few ciders Styru awakes to find that he has spent the night with 'Harriet', a big lass!

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Shamelessly continued below....

 

Styru

Admin
28DL Full Member
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There so long that it went dark and the tide went out....

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For many years a local group "The Friends of Purton" have cared for the site, worked to identify the craft, and campaigned to protect them.

They have finally scored a major victory, by getting British Waterways to accept ownership of the site:

The Friends of Purton are overjoyed at the news that after 12 years of delicate negotiations, the Purton Hulks have been formally adopted by British Waterways who recently announced that they have taken the proactive step of registering ownership of the land encompassing the hulks.

In a statement Mr Brian Casey of British Waterways formally acknowledged that "This land has been registered and is in British Waterway ownership". Mr Casey went on to advise "We have checked our records on this and cross referenced these with the Land Registry and can confirm that British Waterways own the land on which the Hulks sit".

This is a rewrite of a report I put up a while back - but lost the pics in a photof00kit reshuffle.

Lots of pics I know - but this is a truly wonderful place.

Thanks for looking







~​
 

Gh0sT

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Kinell , where was the pic heavy warning.

Superb Photo's though Styru - nice one :thumb
 

Brian

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Concrete boats? - concrete doesn't float FFS

What next? - boats made out of metal? ??

oh wait, yes - nice one
 

Blackeagle

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Re: The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (multiple visits)

Nice :thumb

Love this place visited twice on the second occasion i acceidently on purpose fell into a derelict hotel spotted
on the way into Sharpness :D

My Flickr S Blackeagle
 

Styru

Admin
28DL Full Member
Re: The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (multiple visits)

Right, someone PM'd me about this place the other day - but it was posted whilst the timestamp was playing up - so it got deleted - and I forget who it was.

PM me again mate if you still have questions
 

pseudo

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Re: The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (multiple visits)

Nice place and captured well. :)
 

2wid

ratamahatta
28DL Full Member
Re: The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (multiple visits)

nice one Styru :)

my tip:
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:thumb
 

a-j

28DL Member
28DL Member
Re: The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (multiple visits)

this is the reason i love this site, without this i would never have known it existed but now i'm spurred on to add it to the list of places to see before i hit 30, thanks, and excellent report and pics :)
 

The Littlest Jellyfish

Hibernating Jellysquirrel
28DL Full Member
Re: The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (multiple visits)

I love The Purton Hulks. They lost the plot a bit after their fourth album, I think they ran out of ideas and there were also some line-up changes that affected the group dynamic, but their first two albums are absolute stone-cold classics.
 

ZerO81

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Re: The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (multiple visits)

This is a rather nice report Styru, I like the way you have organised the pictures, its like an old scrap-book style which works very very well :thumb
 

MrMax

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Re: The Purton Hulks, Gloucestershire (multiple visits)

Lovley stuff Styru thanks:thumb
Just the other day I was telling someone about this place, but as I was six or seven when I went there, the details were a bit hazy (also in my memory they were trows rather than barges). Delighted to see stuff still there, time for a revisit!
 
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