Exploring the industrial archaeology of the river Tamar
I have over the years made many voyages up the river Tamar
and also the Lynher. However, more often than not, I have sailed up both rivers
as far as I can and in doing so, I have passed by many nooks and crannies’ that
are worthy of fuller exploration.
I had two articles recently published in the Dinghy Cruising
Journal outlining one such three-day trip back in 2019 and you can access those
articles here, if you are interested:
https://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/community/article/dinghy/cruising-up-to-treluggan-pt-1
I also wrote another article for another magazine on what I
had learned as a novice sailor about dinghy cruising up tidal rivers, an
article aimed at beginners like me:
https://www.boatsandoutboards.co.uk/community/article/dinghy/river-dinghy-cruising-tips
If you prefer visual, then my playlist of Tamar and Lynher
cruises can be found here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbyXP5jYtlM&list=PL4ru7c7wAAWwY8eGzSKrRKQTFh7y3jTp8
So, with all that material available to encourage you to
bring your boat down this way for a cruise, why do any more about sailing the
Tamar?
Well, it’s the valleys unique industrial archaeology.
The Tamar valley and its associated tributaries are an UNESCO World Heritage
site. Everything from brick works to arsenic mines and much more besides. And
during a conversation up at Cotehele, with some local filmmakers about something
else entirely, I suddenly realised I had been missing opportunities when
voyaging the area to really explore this hidden and/or long forgotten history.
If you believe in co-incidences, then you will like this
one. A week after this conversation, a blog and vlog subscriber got in touch
with me as well to offer me an old copy of a book about the maritime culture of
the Tamar Valley. I could have it, if I promised to go and explore the salt
marsh areas opposite Cargreen.
We have been so used to learning about the maritime history associated
with the river Tamar, about boats like ‘Shamrock’ and the people who sailed her
or some of the famous boatyards such as that of ‘Goss’ up at Calstock, that as
Ian D Merry put it in his lovely Maritime Monograph and Report ‘The shipping
and trade of the river Tamar’ (Part 1 – No. 46, 1980)
“much information was also being uncovered not
only about the barges and other sailing craft using the river……..but above all
about the river’s influence on the pattern of life and shipping along its banks.”
“..the close interweaving of
land and shipping activities in the lives of the population along its tidal
reaches had a significance and interest setting them apart from other south
England riverside communities”.
I’m now part way through this lovely book/pamphlet and I
have to say it is a fascinating read and its helping crystallise some ideas in
my head.
The Tamar with its variable winds and tides, mudflats and
fringing marshlands, is a rich, complex river system where through history, a
mariner’s world and that of local farmers often combined. Many farmers were
part time bargemen or active shareholders in the barges that took their produce
down river to market. Often farmers had their own little boats to go off in search
of sand or seaweed for manure on their fields and many farms had their own
little quaysides. Some even acted as ferry points across the river from Devon
to Cornwall and back again. Whatever the case, as Merry observed “the
possession of a boat and the skill to use it was as essential to the Tamar
Valley farmer as knowing where his best field lay for the growing of wheat”.
It is these little quays that attract my interest. I’ve managed
to ground myself on the ancient remains of one of them already; trapping Arwen’s
rudder between some old Cornish boulders and rotting timber baulks that edged an
original old stone quay, on the way up to Treluggan. A sharp lesson learned about always keeping your eye out for
navigation hazards and not closing too close with a river shoreline!
Then, I haven't been up the Tavy yet to Bere Ferrers and Lopwell Dam; I haven't explored Millbrook and I still fancy seeing how far I can get up the rivers Polbathic and Tiddy. Then there are the Kingsmill, Wivelscombe and Forder Lakes as well.
With its steep valley sides, frequent reedy river margins
and lack of roads down to the water’s edge, there was always gong to be a close
relationship between farmer and sailor in the Tamar Valley. The river was always the easiest way of
getting into and out of the area. And then of course, there was the 19th
C discovery of metalliferous mines. As Merry says, the Tamar valley, already a notable
Middle Ages centre for lead and silver mining, became a major centre of copper
and arsenic production as well. And from that point on, local sailing transport
dominated the river right up to the end of WW2.
As is the way, one industry attracts another, the good old
geographical ‘multiplier effect’. Agriculture and mining led to shipbuilding; the
need for quaysides led to quarrying. A demand for local housing generated by
all these industries led to local brickmaking. With primitive quays and rocky, sloping hards,
local boats had to be rugged and thus Tamar barges were massively timbered
boats. By the 19th C two types of boat for the Tamar were being
built – the Tamar barges – heavy and stout and capable of coastal voyages; and
then lighter boats for ’inside the river’ work.
With all this in mind, an idea has begun to take shape. An
exploration series of mini voyages; piloting Arwen up the many muddy
creeks and tidal inlets to find the hidden brickworks, the crumbling farm
quaysides, the old arsenic mines and the ancient limekilns. Journeys, pushing
through small creeks in fringing reedbeds and up the tiny streams into the old ‘Lakes’.
Arwen’s centreboard is going to bounce on the
sandbanks; her rudder may get stuck in the mud. I’m going to miscalculate and
find myself ‘high and dry’ until the next tide. I will have to learn to work
the spring tides effectively. I’d better sort out the rowing position, because there
is going to be a fair amount of that. I may even need to fashion some form of ‘punt
pole’. I need to learn how to tow ‘Angharad’
my tiny ‘Stickleback’ canoe behind Arwen.
But, the glimpses of reed wildlife, the ruins of Victorian
industrial archaeology, opportunities for some stunning landscape
astrophotography with the milky way behind old chimney stacks; and meeting
people who still rely on the river for their economic survival. What great experiences
these will be. What a set of mini voyages. All those sailing skills to be
learned and mastered.
Over the next few weeks, I will study the maps, the charts
and old photographs, to work out an itinerary of places to visit by boat, canoe
and on foot. I’ll share these plans as they unfold. To be sure, it isn’t going
to be a one-year project. My initial guess is this will take a couple of
sailing seasons at least and my first inclination is to head up river to
Calstock and from there right up to Morwellham quay. From there, I will then slowly
work down the river in sections. It may
be over ambitious; I may give up part way through because I tire of it and
there are, let’s face it, other places to sail and adventures to be had (I’m
still working on my ‘grand voyage’ one sailing season – a complete voyage from
Penzance back around to Topsham, up the river Exe – stopping off at various
places and sailing up some river systems like the Fal and the Fowey).
Time will tell. But right now, this Tamar project has caught
my interest and its worth pursuing a little further.
Some interesting pictures of the old quayside of New Port on
the upper Tamar can be found here:
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Thanks for taking a look at my blog. All comments and advice are welcome - drop me a few lines. You can always find videos about Arwen at www.youtube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy. Look forward to hearing from you.
Steve