Purton Ship Graveyard

[Jaycee]

This is a lovely place to visit while the weather’s nice, along the Severn Estuary near Stroud, Gloucestershire. At this time of year with the grass so long you can only see some of the particularly large boats, but you could make out some random bits of metal or wooden beams poking out occasionally too.

The banks of the river Severn have historically suffered from erosion by the tide. Between 1909 and 1965 redundant and unwanted vessels were beached on the foreshore and allowed to fill with silt. These formed a barriere and helped prevent the river eroding into the canal embankment. The various working boats now form one of the largest collection of historical inland waterway craft in Britain.

[align=center]The Dispatch

The Purton Ship Graveyard: Dispatch by jamescharlick, on Flickr

The Severn Collier

The Purton Ship Graveyard: Severn Collier by jamescharlick, on Flickr

The Abbey

The Purton Ship Graveyard: Abbey by jamescharlick, on Flickr

The Harriet

The Purton Ship Graveyard: Harriet by jamescharlick, on Flickr

The Huntley

The King Ex Sally

The Severn Falcon

All in all, a lovely place for a mooch in the sun [/align]

[Mabilis]

Why is it a ship graveyard? (Why not elsewhere?)

[Jaycee]

@Mabilis

Why is it a ship graveyard? (Why not elsewhere?)

As in a collection of old, for all intents and purposes “dead”, ships. I thought that would be obvious.

And I have no idea at all what your second question it about.

[Mabilis]

Yeah the bracket question was part of the first question because I knew you would answer in that way. I didn’t ask what is it. I mean, why there in particular, why not anywhere else. … man this is difficult to explain

From the quote in your first post, it says they dumped ships there as a barrier to stop erosion…

[Jaycee]

Right, I see what you mean. You can see from the Satellite view that there’s a canal running along near this stretch of the river. In order to protect the integrity of the canal, they needed a way to shore up that part of the estuary and did so by beaching these old ships. It works the same way tree and plant roots stop soil washing away in the rain. Erosion is especially bad in the Severn Estuary and at the time this was the best way to prevent it.