TOUGH BIRTHING PAINS OF 'FIRST' MARINA IN SOUTH

The publicity claimed it to be the first purpose-built marina on the south coast and a lot of hard work went into making the most of not a very large area of water.

No doubt at some time the land between Fort Road and the river bank would have spent a lot of time flooded, but raising of the banks was an ongoing thing to overcome this.

Also in the harbour side of the banks were these pipes with flaps, hinged at their tops, which prevented water going into Huggets Field, but should the banks overflow, then as the tide receded the water would drain out through these large pipes back into the harbour.

Chapel Street and the Railway Houses at the junction with Fort Road used to suffer considerably, but that seems to have been put right with the alterations made in that area.

The last big drenching came when spring tides crept up the slipway at the marina putting the boat park and the field under deep water with Fort Road at the recreation ground and through to the football field just one big lake.

Whether it was the water or the salt, you never saw so many dead worms in all your life. The hump made at the shore end of the slipway seemed to cure that problem.

So let us look at the photo. Two cat walks of boats comprise the marina as far as it had got then, much of the slope reaching to the shore had been laid with concrete blocks like chocolate bars, this was to make possible a slipway for Churchill tanks to drive onto landing craft in the 1942 Dieppe Raid disaster.

In two days' time I have to meet a man from Bristol, whose father (still alive) was on these landing craft and referred to the site as Sleepers Hold.

He of course is quite right. Before it was opened up at the turn of the 20th century, it had been an area of slob land, where timbers were 'pickled' in the shallow waters.

Timber piles, used for quaysides and piers, were known as sleepers long before the coming of the railways.

Some early photos of the Hole at high tide show rafts of these timbers moored from the banks.

A north to south bank with a small shallow bridge (which allowed passage of water, piles and small boats) also carried the original rail track from north of the town station to the end of the breakwater, the north pointing bank at the bottom of the picture indicates where it had been.

Note on the right the part submerged 'hard' of chalk boulders, which could accommodate a vessel up to channel boat size, for inspection or urgent repair at low tide.

A Dolphin marking its corner is visible; also there were two landing stages for dangerous cargos, all gone now to enable larger ferries to swing.

Moored in the Hole are two barges, into them will be craned the remaining mud at the foreground.

Lorry loads of this waste had been taken up to the Fort moats and tipped there.

Openings in the northern wall should have been blocked off first as much damage was caused to rooms behind.

Deep dredging has yet to take place between the boat park slipway and the area of the lifeboat house, note the size then of the boat park and the air-sea rescue base in the field beyond (RAF).