Shipbuilding

Ships were probably built in Woodbridge from at least the fourteenth century but this activity did not become a major industry until the seventeenth century when men-of-war were built here.

Building Men-of-War

High Suffolk was a prime source for the timber used to build men-of-war and large quantities of it were shipped from Woodbridge to the Royal dockyards.

Phineas Pett, Master Shipwright at Deptford, used to come to Suffolk to select the timbers and he realized that it would be easier to build men-of-war at Woodbridge rather than to transport ungainly logs to the dockyards. Between 1630 and 1680 at least 15 men-of-war were built at Woodbridge and it is believed that many of them were commissioned by Phineas or by his son Peter.

Peter Pett was initially his father’s assistant but he eventually became Superintendent of Chatham dockyard and one of the three commissioners of the navy.

This painting is a portrait of Peter Pett. It also shows the Sovereign of the Seas which he and his father built at Woolwich for Charles I in 1637.

Many of the larger ships were not completed at Woodbridge but were sailed under jury-rig, or were towed, to the Thames to be masted and rigged with Woodbridge rope. This drawing is of the 550 ton Maidstone which carried 40 guns and was built by Edward Mundy in 1654. She was re-named the Mary Rose after the Restoration of the Monarchy. She was the last wooden ship to bear this illustrious name.

Drawing of the 550 ton Maidstone built by Mundy in 1654.

The locations of two shipyards in Woodbridge are indicated by this map as is that of the rope-walk where rope was made until the end of the eighteenth century.

Peter Pett may have benefited from having the men-of-war built at Woodbridge. In 1632, he had married the daughter of the owner of the Lord’s Quay and of other riverside land. Seventeen years later Peter held this land and he appears to have rented it to relatives who built some of the ships that Peter and his father commissioned. This conflict of interests does not appear to have attracted attention. His dismissal in 1667 was because he was judged not to have taken adequate precautions to prevent a Dutch raid on the Chatham dockyards.

The building of men-of war at Woodbridge continued for some time after Peter Pett’s dismissal but it was over by about 1680 and the shipyards reverted to building commercial vessels.

Location of the two shipyards used to build men of war at Woodbridge.

Building Commercial Vessels

By 1730 the shipyard at the Lord’s Quay was ‘cut from the river by a mud wall and almost filled’ but the shipyard on Lime-Kiln quay continued to flourish. It covered the strip of ground running from the Deben right up to the Thoroughfare.

There are only a few records of the ships built there in the 1700s but at least one of them was for the Jamaica trade.

From 1796 the brigs and schooners built at the shipyard were mainly for the coastal trade. The last brig was constructed in 1816 and thereafter only schooners were built.

Painting of the schooner Bernard Barton which was built in Woodbridge.

When the shipyard was advertised to let in 1829 it was described thus. The premises comprise a commodious dock, enclosed building yard, ship warehouse and draft room, wharf, timber-yard, steam plank workshops and counting house’ everything that was needed for a ship-building business.

In November 1830 William Taylor took over the shipyard and eight years later it is clearly shown in on a 1838 map. An annotated extract from this map is shown here. The area outlined in red was being used as the shipyard and the area outlined in yellow, which was at one time part of the shipyard, was being used by a timber importer. The red dotted line marks an indent, shown on an earlier map, which was probably a slipway.

Map of the Lime Kiln Quay shipyard in 1838.

In 1850 the shipyard was advertised to let but there were no takers. When the East Suffolk Railway started to plan their service to Woodbridge in 1853 the shipyard was still vacant. They bought it in 1856 and four years later they had laid the main up and down lines and a goods line through the old shipyard. The impact of the railway is clearly shown here by overlaying the railway lines on an extract from the 1838 tithe map.

The railway lines superimposed on a 1838 map of Lime Kiln Quay.

Shipbuilding at Woodbridge could not, however, be killed off. This extract from the 1881 Ordnance Survey map shows that a new shipyard had been constructed on the water front just below the old shipyard. The new shipyard yard was probably the inspiration of the boat builder William Garrard in about 1860. It was taken over by Ebenezer Robinson in 1884. The main activity of the yard was building boats for the increasing number of people who were sailing for pleasure.

Extract from the 1881 Ordnance Survey map showing the new ship yard on the water front.

Building Boats to be Sailed for Pleasure

The Lime Kiln Quay boat yard was gradually expanded by Ebenezer’s son ‘Robbie’ Robertson and, by the early part of the 20th century, it was well known for its barge yachts. The photographs below show such a vessel being built in 1911 and one being launched in the same year. Their flat bottoms enabled them to sit on the ubiquitous mud of our coast at low tide but their performance in other respects could not match yachts with keels. Accordingly Robertson’s switched to making such yachts before the First World War.

A yacht being built at Robertson’s boat yard in 1911.

The yard produced a number of very successful yachts during the 1960s and 70s, and, in 1992, its 28-foot cruising yacht won the accolade of ‘best boat’ at the Plymouth Boat Show. Now repair and refitting are the main activities of the yard but around 70% of this work is still on wooden boats.

A yacht being launched at Robertson’s boat yard in 1911.

Ebenezer Robertson hoped that his son-in-law Alfred Everson would join his son Robbie at the Lime Kiln Quay boat yard but there was ill feeling between the pair. Undaunted Ebenezer, who owned the coal yard at the end of the Avenue, started Everson’s boat yard there in 1889. This yard became well known for building 12ft clinker dinghies and the 3-ton Cherub, a cabin yacht for estuary cruising. The photograph below show a vessel being launched in about 1900 (top) and another in 1934 (bottom).

In 1912, when Alfred was fifty years old, his yard was destroyed by fire. The yards were rebuilt as the Phoenix works.

The 1939-45 war brought contracts from the Royal Navy to build craft which could use to paint their ships. Enough material was ‘liberated’ from this project to produce a prototype sailing dinghy, Beaver 1, and then a second version Red Beet which became the first of the 14ft Kingfisher class. A total of 29 Kingfisher dinghies were produced between 1943 and 1963 and several examples of the both Cherub and Kingfisher classes on the Deben today. They are still looked after by the yard that built them. In addition to these craft there has been a regular production of small rowing and sailing dinghies.

In 1989 the yard passed from the Everson family to Peter Derby who had great interest in steam power with his yacht Mrya. A number of yachts were fitted out in the yard using mouldings and equipment from the Pegasus Yacht Company. In the 1980s the business passed to Frank Knights and, in 2001, it was taken over by a small group of local yachtsmen who continued the tradition of individual care for many traditional and modern yachts. The group also provided moorings, winter storage, maintenance and repair.

From 2010 the name of the business was changed to The Woodbridge Boatyard Ltd to make it easier to find on the internet.

In 1889 Alfred Everson had became official time keeper and starter for all Deben Sailing Club races. He started the races from his large jetty using blank cartridges in his 12 bore shotgun.

A yacht being launched at Everson’s boatyard circa 1900.

A third boat yard was created in about 1927 by Claude Whisstock on a marsh abutting the southern side of the causeway leading to the Tide Mill. This marsh is first mentioned in a 1560 document which describes “the land to the south of the causeway leading to towards the tide mill” as being “one acre of marsh, now part built on, late a parcel of le Old Myll Pond”. It is thus likely that the original Tide Mill was replaced when the present, much larger, mill pond was created. The earliest map showing the area was produced by Isaac Johnson in 1827. By then a causeway had been built which cut the marsh off from the river. An extract from the 1827 map is shown on the right and the red dot identifies the area of marsh which was eventually used for the boatyard.

Extract from Isaac Johnson’s 1827 map.

In 1859 the railway arrived and the top part of the marsh was in-filled to make space for the goods line which ran alongside the main up and down lines. The extent of the remaining marsh is clearly shown by the extract from the 1881 OS map on the right. This map also shows that access to the high water ferry had been moved to the centre of the causeway linking the Ferry Quay to the Tide Mill Quay. Later maps show that the marsh remained unchanged until 1927.

Extract from the 1881 OS map.

The photograph on the right was taken from the other side of the estuary in about 1900. It clearly shows the causeway linking the marsh between it and the railway. The steps leading from the causeway to the high water ferry is marked by a red arrow.

This circa 1900 photograph clearly shows the causeway and the marsh behind it.

In 1926 Claude Whisstock purchased the marsh, between the Ferry Quay and the Tide Mill, and soon after, he built a boatyard there on stilts. When his business expanded all the new buildings and storage areas had concrete foundations. The earliest photograph of his boat yard is shown on the right.

The earliest photograph of Whisstock’s boat yard.

A slightly later photograph, taken from the other end of the causeway, is shown on the right. The photograph below show the launching of the Orwell Viking in about 1926, It was a 40ft passenger launch which was used for pleasure trips on the River Orwell. To the right of it is a photograph of the craft after it had been fitted out. Her sister ship, the Deben Viking, was also built at the yard.

The yacht in foreground is Maritza II which was built in 1937. She was the first of a series of forty one “Deben Four Tonners” built at the yard.

In 1963 work began on creating a horseshoe shaped Marina as a deep water mooring for over 200 boats.

By the 1970s a larger workshop was erected to enable larger boats to be built and to allow more boats to be built concurrently. A photograph of the boat yard at that time is shown below.

Whisstock’s boatyard flourished and it became the best known yard in Suffolk. It produced a range of wooden, fibreglass and aluminium hulled craft and established a national reputation. Eventually the boat yard filled the whole of area which had formerly been mash and, by mid the 1980s, it was as shown by the aerial photograph on the right.

After the Whisstock family sold the yard in 1984 the business soon went into receivership. It managed to start up again only to close finally in 1990. After several attempts to redevelop the site planning permission was eventually given for mixture of residential and commercial developments, a community boat shed and a community heritage building. The latter, which is now the home of Woodbridge Museum, is on the site of Whisstock’s first boat shed.

A Launch in 1971

When Claude Whisstock walked out of the boatyard to start a new life in the USA the walls of his office were still decorated with photographs of the last series of boats that he had designed and built. A set of photographs of one of these boats is shown below.