This short clip provides a glimpse of the building boom of Victorian London, with millions of bricks being brought from[…]
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Category: Working Sail
The UK has a strong maritime history, with many coastal communities relying on the sea for a living. This category includes tales of boatbuilders, fishermen, traders, pilots, ships of war and rescue as well as the changing use for many vessels now used as leisure craft.
SB ‘Growler’ hopes to launch, April 2020
We’ve been following the progress of young boatbuilder, Ash Faire-Ring, based in Norfolk, England as he restores the Thames barge,[…]
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Colour on the Thames, 1935
This rare colour footage from the British Film Institute archive shows life on the River Thames in the 1930s. Its[…]
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Yarmouth smacks, a royal screening, 1896
In this tiny fragment of late 19th century film footage, we see smacks leaving Great Yarmouth. Shot with one of[…]
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Last of the Bristol Channel sailing coasters
Edmund Eglinton was just 13 in 1915, when he began to sail on the trows and ketches of the Bristol[…]
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‘Out punt!’: the Bristol pilot’s call
Captain George Buck recollects two night watches, five miles southwest of the Wolf Rock, waiting for an expected ship from[…]
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From Barge to London Restaurant: SB Pretoria, 1964
This Pathé archive film tells the story of Thames Sailing barge Pretoria which became a restaurant on the Thames in[…]
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Changing times for the sailing colliers, 1727
What would travellers from the days of sail make of Harwich Harbour in the 21st century? Daniel Defoe takes to[…]
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Albion, the oldest remaining Norfolk wherry
‘Albion’ was built as a Norfolk wherry and carried cargo on the inland waterways of eastern England. Jack Powley was[…]
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The British trawler fleet: 1940 – 1949
This ‘Instructional film’ from the Pathé Archive provides a clearly-presented overview of trawling in the 1940s, as steam began to[…]
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