Name Tollesbury

1.   What is the vessel’s ability to demonstrate history in her physical fabric? Evidence for designs, functions, techniques, processes, styles, customs and habits or uses and associations in relation to events and people.  How early, intact or rare these features are may impact on significance.

S.B. TOLLESBURY is the last remaining barge constructed by Feltham’s yard at Sandwich being number 13 out of the 14 barges they built. Her fabric remains complete, although the build material of pitch pine on oak frames has been subject to repairs and renewals during her lifetime.  Due to the rarity of American grown pitch pine, her hull planking and linings were renewed using oak in the early 1990s, giving her a fine interior which has lasted well.  The oak used for reconstruction was reportedly taken from the famous Seven Oaks, felled by the great storm of 1989 and the work was carried out by the notable Master Shipwright, Joe Dunnet at Dockend in Ipswich. 

She still retains her original massive pitch pine keelson, along with many of her original floors and hull frames.  The use of her hold for the carriage of loose grain over many decades is evidenced through the shape of this keelson. This piece of timber, which supports the centreline of the barge structure, was typically subject to damage from the grabbers used to scoop grain from the hold of the barges. Over the years she has lost material from the original square form of the keelson, with it becoming rounded along the length from this constant abrasion. 

Her current composite deck was laid rapidly following the Docklands bombing with poor quality materials. It has succumbed to water penetration and rot issues typical of composite timber decks. The mast deck and areas forward of this have been renewed with hardwood planking and the remainder now requires renewal in the same materials.

TOLLESBURY retains her form and rig as a Thames Sailing Barge, though her original mule rig was altered during later service and restoration, to provide the easier to handle staysail rig. She is currently rigged with the more common small stern mounted mizzen and without a bowsprit, though these will be replaced. She still possesses a spritsail rig, with mast, sprit and topmast, along with substantial timber leeboards and a large hand operated anchor windlass, typical of the Thames Sailing Barge.

2.   What are the vessel’s associational links for which there is no physical evidence?

Associations with people or places.  Off-ship research.

S.B. TOLLESBURY was commissioned by a businessman from Tollesbury in Essex and, following his death, was sold to the maltsters R & W Paul Ltd of Ipswich, with whom she worked for the remainder of her commercial service. She was built to carry a range of goods but spent most of her service life in the grain and hops business, although she worked throughout the First World War transporting coal, coke and pitch from both sides of the Channel.  She has strong regional connections to the estuarine waters of the East Coast and lower Thames where she mostly plied her trade, but regular trips further afield were common, and she is known to have sailed to the Netherlands on a number of occasions.

She has international significance having been commandeered by the Admiralty in 1940 to take part in Operational Dynamo evacuating the British Expeditionary Force from the beaches of Dunkirk where she carried more than 200 soldiers back to the UK.  She also has national associations having been moored at South Dock in London in the 1990s, where she was operating as a pub, when the IRA detonated a massive bomb just a few hundred yards away. The following explosion was the largest peace-time bombing on mainland Britain. Although largely protected from the blast, TOLLESBURY was lifted out of the water, ripping her new decks and coamings off the hull and then dropped back down again into the dock. 

TOLLESBURY was recorded on the National Register of Historic Vessels in 2011.

3.   How does the vessel’s shape or form combine and contribute to her function?

Overall aesthetic impact of the vessel, her lines, material she was built from and her setting.  Does she remain in her working environment?

TOLLESBURY was one of the largest of the barges built by Feltons and had good lines and a fine sheer. However, she was noted as being quite angular amidships, with a very square hold and high sides, gaining her the nickname, ‘The Sandwich Box’. 

The flat bottom and leeboards used on the Thames Sailing Barge gave them great flexibility, enabling access to the widest range of waterways, from coastal waters, right through to the most shallow of inland creeks. Equally, the rig plan is hugely adaptable, allowing sailing in all conditions, even in the built-up urban waters of the Thames Estuary. For many years before engine powered lifting gear was common, the sprit was also used as a derrick for loading and unloading cargo. It is these developments over centuries of work in the estuary waters of the Thames, which made the Thames Sailing Barge such a successful and transformative part of the river trade. 

Though the hold was well restored in 1992 and is representative of the traditional form of a barge hold, the 1950s addition of an engine had already resulted in the removal of the entire skipper’s cabin, replaced instead by a fire-resistant engine room box. Since 2012, the forward cabin and bulkhead layout has been partially reinstated to provide for heads and further reinstatement works to the original specification are expected in future.

For her use in Operation Dynamo, TOLLESBURY was chosen, along with other similar Thames Barges, as their wooden hulls would keep them relatively safe from magnetic mines, and their flat bottoms enabled them to come closer into the beaches than other deeper draught craft. Many of these craft were however still lost or abandoned during the operation.

TOLLESBURY is now based at Lower Halstow, on the north coast of Kent, along with two other Thames Sailing Barges. The shallow mud berths in these waters are ideal for long term care and maintenance and are a fitting environment for a vessel of her kind. Although she is still capable of being operated, this is limited due to the present condition of the replacement deck. 

Source: vessel owner, November 2024