Proposal to set up a ‘Kent Traditional Boat Association’

By Edward Sargent

It is proposed that a Kent Traditional Boat Association be set up, to bring together a group of like-minded people with an interest in the traditional boats of Kent. This would have a number of aims which would include research into the histories of Kentish boat-types, creating a register of surviving boats, arranging events for Kent’s traditional boats, setting up bases where historic boats can be kept safely and worked on, owning and using traditional Kent boats and replicating those that have no surviving examples or where only survivors are now static exhibits in museums. One of these bases could potentially be in the Medway/Gravesend area and the other somewhere near Deal or Dover.

With its long and diverse coastline and extensive rivers, including a large part of the tidal Thames, a wide range of boat-types was developed to service the varying needs of the fishing, passenger-carrying and other maritime industries in the county of Kent. These vary from small work-boats to sailing barges and include such types as Gravesend watermen’s skiffs, Deal Galleys, Deal luggers, bawleys and Whitstable oyster smacks. Whereas examples of many of these types survive, others are now extinct. Some sole surviving examples in museums will never be used again. While some lost boat-types are reasonably well-documented, there is little surviving information on others.

To learn more, please visit the proposed Association’s website at www.kenttraditionalboat.org.uk