History Afloat: Thames Sailing Barges at The Hythe, Maldon 17 June 2024

WATCH: History Afloat: Thames Sailing Barges at The Hythe, Maldon 17 June 2024
There were hundreds of sailing barges working around the Thames, the East Anglian coast, and down the Channel in the 1800s and 1900s. They carried all kinds of cargo, mainly agricultural, in towards London, and many then carried other products back to smaller ports around the country.
When I was a young man, around 60 years ago, I walked to work every day along the quayside at Ipswich - but then, most of the barges had diesel engine
Nowadays, there are barges based in several ports, and they earn their keep carrying trippers of all sorts . . .