Forgotten Coast - Robert Simper
£14.95
Out of stock
Product Number
7200029
Forgotten Coast
Author: Robert Simper
"To see the first streaks of daylight at the beginning of a new millennium we drove down to Shingle Street, a hamlet on the Suffolk coast. It was still dark when we arrived and we crunched across the shingle to the water's edge where a slight sea was breaking lazily on the beach. Around us we could hear the excited voices from other parties who had also come to this easterly place to witness the beginning of a new millennium. In fact it seemed a bit of an anti-climax. There was a slight haze over Hollesley Bay, and no sign of the sun rising on a new era. Slowly the night was replaced by daylight. Someone in our party had brought champagne, so we drank that from paper cups and then retreated to the warmth of our homes. This had been just the beginning of another, in this case rather mild, winter's day, but the world had moved on to another chapter in its long complicated history.
Shingle Street is typical of the hundreds of villages and towns around the coast of the British Isles. Until World War II this hamlet had been the home of long shore fishermen and a few labourers who had made a precarious living from the bay in front of them. All that has been forgotten and the row of houses along the shingle ridge has become mainly holiday and retirement homes. The traditional way of life dependent on the sea, which reached a peak in the late nineteenth century, vanished in many places in the twentieth century. A rise in living standards and advancing technology swept away the customs and dialects of the coastal people. The days when just about every village and town had its own special type of work-boat are almost gone, but in some places these strong local traditions have lingered on into the twenty-first century. In other areas there are societies and movements dedicated to keep- ing alive the traditional boats and customs of the past. Long may everyone hang on to their regional identity.
When my son Jonathan and I had the 1904 Suffolk beach boat Pet restored in 1981 we only found one man who remembered how to sail this type of dipping lugger. Anyone restoring a similar type of craft now is unlikely to find anyone with real knowledge of the old ways. They can of course relearn the old ways and many people have set out to rediscover the best from the past.
The aim of this book is to record some of the forgotten working practices of the age of sail and oar, and something of the places where the traditional way of life has managed to survive. It is not necessary to record a detailed picture of every place, for most seafaring communities already have at least one book devoted to their past. Instead, by describing some of the old working customs, a general picture can be built up of the whole coast. it seems worthwhile to make a record of the old ways before they slip over the horizon of time and become beyond recall."
Robert Simper was born in 1937 and is married with three children and five grandchildren. Robert Simper has sailed extensively on the East Coast. Amongst his other activities, he writes regularly for Classic Boat and Sea Breezes and has written a regular column in the latter for thirty-two years. He has lived in Suffolk all his life and shows no sign of leaving. He is one of Britain's best known writers on traditional working craft. He has written a series of books covering the histories of the East Coast estuaries. Reviewers have described him as 'a master of the photo-history book' and deemed 'the English Estuaries Series to be classic of their kind'
This book is another in his excellent series.
Author: Robert Simper
"To see the first streaks of daylight at the beginning of a new millennium we drove down to Shingle Street, a hamlet on the Suffolk coast. It was still dark when we arrived and we crunched across the shingle to the water's edge where a slight sea was breaking lazily on the beach. Around us we could hear the excited voices from other parties who had also come to this easterly place to witness the beginning of a new millennium. In fact it seemed a bit of an anti-climax. There was a slight haze over Hollesley Bay, and no sign of the sun rising on a new era. Slowly the night was replaced by daylight. Someone in our party had brought champagne, so we drank that from paper cups and then retreated to the warmth of our homes. This had been just the beginning of another, in this case rather mild, winter's day, but the world had moved on to another chapter in its long complicated history.
Shingle Street is typical of the hundreds of villages and towns around the coast of the British Isles. Until World War II this hamlet had been the home of long shore fishermen and a few labourers who had made a precarious living from the bay in front of them. All that has been forgotten and the row of houses along the shingle ridge has become mainly holiday and retirement homes. The traditional way of life dependent on the sea, which reached a peak in the late nineteenth century, vanished in many places in the twentieth century. A rise in living standards and advancing technology swept away the customs and dialects of the coastal people. The days when just about every village and town had its own special type of work-boat are almost gone, but in some places these strong local traditions have lingered on into the twenty-first century. In other areas there are societies and movements dedicated to keep- ing alive the traditional boats and customs of the past. Long may everyone hang on to their regional identity.
When my son Jonathan and I had the 1904 Suffolk beach boat Pet restored in 1981 we only found one man who remembered how to sail this type of dipping lugger. Anyone restoring a similar type of craft now is unlikely to find anyone with real knowledge of the old ways. They can of course relearn the old ways and many people have set out to rediscover the best from the past.
The aim of this book is to record some of the forgotten working practices of the age of sail and oar, and something of the places where the traditional way of life has managed to survive. It is not necessary to record a detailed picture of every place, for most seafaring communities already have at least one book devoted to their past. Instead, by describing some of the old working customs, a general picture can be built up of the whole coast. it seems worthwhile to make a record of the old ways before they slip over the horizon of time and become beyond recall."
Robert Simper was born in 1937 and is married with three children and five grandchildren. Robert Simper has sailed extensively on the East Coast. Amongst his other activities, he writes regularly for Classic Boat and Sea Breezes and has written a regular column in the latter for thirty-two years. He has lived in Suffolk all his life and shows no sign of leaving. He is one of Britain's best known writers on traditional working craft. He has written a series of books covering the histories of the East Coast estuaries. Reviewers have described him as 'a master of the photo-history book' and deemed 'the English Estuaries Series to be classic of their kind'
This book is another in his excellent series.
Write Your Own Review