Transat

A mode of transport which rarely features here is the boat. The boat of course is a major part of Plymouth and its history so I really should learn a bit more on this area!

This weekend saw the launch of the 2008 Transat race which has a special place in Plymouths sailing history. It began in Plymouth in 1960 after a bet of half a crown between Sir Francis Chichester and Blondie Hasler to see who could race the Atlantic the fastest.

Plymouth had to fight hard to retain the race for this year. Central to winning the bid was the decision to bring the race into the heart of the city at Sutton Harbour, which would be achieved by building a race village around the Barbican.

With excellent weather this weekend I managed to get a few photos yesterday:

Of course one of the main attractions of Sutton Harbour has to be the presence of the good Captain Jasper - All these wonderful boats were great - but the Captains New York BLT was a real highlight of the afternoon!

Boats

I dont often mention boats in this blog but they are an important aspect if the local transport scene.
Sutton Harbour is to host the Plymouth Classic Boat Rally for the second time, with this year set to be bigger and better than ever.The Sutton Harbour Group is the main sponsor of the event, now in its 20th year, which features five days of display sailing and racing from Friday to Tuesday, July 27-31.

As many as 100 classic craft are expected, including racing yachts, 100-year-old West Country working boats, former trawlers and faithful replicas of many classic designs.

The rally will welcome its first entrants from Germany and Brittany, and another highlight will be a 102-year-old Bristol Channel pilot cutter.



Racing in the Sound gets under way on the Sunday, July 29, from about 12.15pm.

Next day, the fleet will sail to Torpoint Mosquito Sailing Club for afternoon racing and a traditional Cornish evening with live music, and on the final day the fleet will cruise to Fowey for further racing and prize-giving in the Fowey Gallants Sailing Club from 8pm.

For more information, visit www.plymouthclassicboatrally . co.uk.

Little bit of transport history

Ive not had much chance time to spend on the blog this last week but have a wonderful little bit of transport history tonight. If you look closely at the photo above there is a little bit of track that seems out of place. I have been wondering what that little spare bit of track was doing there. It didnt seem to fit in with any of the remaining tracks on the quayside. Well I was reading up this weekend and finally found an answer - and it turns out to be more interesting than I expected...

From Sutton Harbour, by Crispin Gill:

In 1878 the London & South Western Railway (L&SWR) opened Friary as a goods station and one line in the marshalling yard finished just short of Exeter Street. At a cost of £25,000 the Harbour Company was busy building the North East Quay, which cut through the clutter of old shipyards, quays and storehouses there, and cleared the path for both railways to reach North Quay in 1879, the L&SWR on 22nd October and the Great Western Railway (GWR) on 6 November. The GWR had to take a spur off their new line to Coxside Station at St Johns Bridge to get a line of approach. They were still broad gauge and the L&SWR standard gauge, so there had to be three rails to each track once they joined up on North Quay. This hybrid was carried to Sutton Wharf and Vauxhall Quay, turning the corner by turntable as proposed earlier but never making the Viaduct leap across to the Barbican. Only three years later the GWR switched over from broad to standard gauge and the third rail was taken up in Sutton Harbour. On Sutton Harbour the line of cobbles mark the old broad rail, and at a set of points in front of the door into Dolphin House is the last piece of broad gauge line in the country in its original position.

It really would be nice if somewhere in all the redevelopment of this area there could be made space for displays of the areas rich history to tell people about little bits like this. In the meantime - this book is well recommended!

New Development planned

News from This is Plymouth today
Two of the South West's best known firms are joining forces for a £50million development that will further open up Plymouth's waterfront at Sutton Harbour.Sutton Harbour Holdings and Redruth-based Rowe Property Developments are teaming up to pursue a joint planning application to develop a site near Shepherd's Wharf, at Sutton Harbour.It is estimated that the massive scheme would have commercial accommodation on its ground, and possibly first, floors, with flats on the remaining floors. It will also give the public access to another section of the harbour as part of the Sutton Harbour Heritage Trail, which will take tourists and Plymouth people around the Barbican area showing them sites of historical interest.
The scheme involves Rowe's brownfield site of just over an acre next to the Premier Travel Inn, which was developed by a Rowe Group subsidiary in 2003.It also encompasses the half-acre Sutton Harbour Holdings site fronting Sutton Road, currently being operated on a temporary basis as a fire station.

As I have said this is an extremely interesting area for all sorts of reasons so it is good to see it being opened up, although I do wonder how much of the 'history' will be left by the time they have finnished. I am aiming to get down there shortly to get a few photos in!

The image below is the view on Google Earth with the yellow shaded area being roughly where the development appears to be taking place.


The Plymouth City Council web site has a policy guide to its aims in this area which do give some hope!















A good web page to look at covering this whole area is the Plymouth data page for Sutton Harbour. This will give you a flavour of why I am so interested in the place!

Teats Hill

Following on from the news that we will soon be seeing Ducks use the slip way at Teats Hill I thought it would be good to have a closer look at the area. The Teats Hill Slipway can be clearly seen in this lovely photo from about 1980 which has come from the excellent CyberHeritage site. (Click on the photos for a bigger view)
If you look at the image below from Google Earth you will see how much the area has changed.
The main change being the new Plymouth Marine Aquarium building which has sprung up. You may also notice the changes behind the aquarium where the dock side has been filled in. The area where the red ship sits above is now dry land and a very nice pub/ restuarant.


There is a whole lot of things I could point out in this area where there is so much history - and indeed Transport History I could fill pages and pages. One day I will have more information on a proper Plymothian Transit web site which will link the now with the then.


didbygraham