Historic tug revisits Essex Wharf - Use the wharf again

Use the wharf again

Apart from ruining the pleasure of a cruise up the waterway having four huge blocks of flats on the site of Essex Wharf rather than a view of Walthamstow Marshes, it would be nonsensical not to use it as a wharf again. The waterway is in working order, the roads are chocker, and the environmental benefits of using water transport are well known. Jamie is not the only one who thinks it does not make any sense.

Commonsense use of the waterways runs in Jamie's family, and the photo shows the tug Major in 1962 under its original name Valkirie when it was part of the Vokins fleet, being skippered by his grandfather Henry Vincent.

Still going strong

The tug with its powerful Gardner 6L3 engine (still going strong) is towing heavily laden barge Leetrout with two more barges behind. The barges had just come through Bow Locks with a load of timber from Surrey Commercial Docks and the photo is shot from Three Mills bridge where there is now a Tesco supermarket on the right in place of the industrial buildings.

Timber by the megatons was shipped up the Lee Navigation, in particular for the world famous furniture-making trade, and this load was heading for one of the numerous timber yards such as Lathams Timber that stood on the opposite bank to Essex Wharf, and which has recently suffered the fate of property development that is threatened for Essex Wharf.

Came a cropper—again

Although the canals are in working order, they are in urgent need of a bit of maintenance, which will have to include a certain amount of dredging up the Lee Navigation.

Major came off the Thames into Limehouse Basin, and had set out from the basin into the Limehouse Cut up to Bow. However, it got no further than 50 yards when an interior sprung mattress was picked up by the large three-bladed prop, and which took over an hour to remove using ropes and a winch which James had to attach to the mattress springs by entering the freezing water.

What a welcome back to the Lee Navigation for the historic tug!

Del Brenner, Regents Network and a member of the London Waterways Commission.