Posted by Tim Hudson
on August 12, 2009, 10:59 am
81.187.254.134
I appreciate that I've posted this (or similar) elsewhere, but I think its worth putting here too.
A little while ago I mentioned that I would be attending the celebrations for the 150th Anniversary of Silloth Docks ... so a brief report.
Silloth Docks – a small port on the NW coast of the UK, mainly handling grain and molasses and limited in size. To celebrate the anniversary, the Docks Estate was open to the public – visiting ships & craft included a topsail schooner (the ‘Wilma’), a Customs Cutter, a RNLI ‘relief’ lifeboat, a vintage tug from the Mersey (‘Brocklebank’) and a preserved Fleetwood trawler (‘Jacinta’). Other attractions included the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (Lancaster, Spitfire, & Hurricane) – scheduled for both days but which only made it on Saturday, and the unexpected appearance of the preserved Avro Vulcan bomber on the Sunday. RAF & RN ASR helicopters were present both days. There were also ‘Pirate attacks’, a jazz band and what was described as a ‘belly dance troupe’ (I thought it was ‘Arabic Dance’ nowadays) – the ‘Urban Gypsies’ (who apparently have been on a TV programme called ‘Britain’s got talent’). They performed in a local pub called the ‘Albion’ that evening – a site that was certainly not for the faint hearted – although I have to say that the ‘Albion’ is not a place for the faint hearted at the best of times.
I understand that the organisers hoped for 4,000 visitors over the weekend – well over 10,000 turned up.
Was it worth my while to take five days off to move stock to the Solway, at a time when I’ve got a lot of calls on my time (and money)? Most certainly. Would I do it again? Oh, Yes. It was a wonderful weekend of talking about (and selling) ships, books, nautical research and local history. It was nice to meet Welton regulars (& Thanks to those who wrote apologising for not being able to get). This was very much an example of a small local event on a low budget that turned into a great success – Bravo Zulu to all at Silloth.
(Note to Martin Brown: Tetley’s Dark Mild (OG 4.6) £2.05 (rpt £2.05) in the ‘Albion’)
http://www.newsandstar.co.uk/news/ten_thousand_attend_silloth_port_150th_anniversary_weekend?referrerPath=home/promotions
& http://www.photrek.co.uk/silloth.htm
Can't really say anything more - a Grand Weekend Out.
T
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