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The Cambria, £1.4 million restoration project on the quay
Lady of the Lea is sponsored by Rochester Independent College
The Cambria, £1.4 million restoration project on the quay
Lady of the Lea is sponsored by Rochester Independent College
Standard Quay 
Standard Quay is a beautiful spot because its a place for work on traditional boats and the buildings have their own organic charm. This is its distinctive feature and the public access makes it doubly valuable. It really has to be seen in the samelight as oysters at Whistable, a key feature of the town worthy of support rather than commonplace redevelopment as we have seen at Conyer etc
We brought our 1926 80′ Dutch sailing barge, Viodes, to Faversham from London for a mast to be put on.
The craftsmen and atmosphere made the stay a memorable one for us, our 2 sons and 3 cats – the cows opposite mesmerised them! Traditional skills will be lost if the area is allowed to become yet just another row of “desirable waterside residences”. There are fewer and fewer boatyards with the skills to work on the larger traditional craft and it is so easy for them to just slip, away one by one, never to be replace.
I have just returned home to the Isle of Man having found Faversham and its shipyards, boats and environs all of which were totally amazing. I am a wooden boat fanatic, building models of them, especially the barges.
During my visit on Thursday 31st March 2011 with my wife, we met a fellow wood boat fanatic from Australia and he like us could not understand how such a working historic ship building quayside be under threat from the developers. Then we visited Conyer and saw for ourselves what can and must not happen – privatisation of wonderful waterways and history.
I live a line’s heave literally from our shipyard here in Ramsey on the Isle of Man and am always mingling in with what ever is happening; the “old” master shipwright still tinkers with dinghy and small wood boat restoration daily, whatever the weather, despite being retired some 10years!
And to cap the visit entirely, my wife at one time resided in a houseboat on the Thames at Kingston and was moored outside the “lady of the Lea” and I am currently making a model of the “Lady Daphne” and there she was at Standard Quay.
We will always have some great memories of this visit. Thanks for being there, Kim.
These vessels are so beautiful. Good luck with keeping Standard Quay open. Tom