Cooks Yard

Barge blocks in the River Blackwater at Cooks Yard

Walter Cook established a Thames sailing barge building business in 1894 on the bank of the River Blackwater at Maldon, Essex, England. The business, known as Walter Cook and Son, operated until the 1980s - at which time, it was the last remaining barge yard in Britain.

In 1999, Topsail Charters took on the lease of the yard and refurbished it. They restored boatbuilding and barge repair to the site and maintain the last set of original barge repair blocks on the east coast of England.^[1]

History

Walter Cook took on the shipyard on the River Blackwater at Maldon in 1894 to build the Thames sailing barge Dawn, which had been ordered by James Keeble, a member of a well-known local barge owning family.

The Dawn was launched in 1897 and, not long afterwards, the yard started work on the Lord Roberts, for Meesons of Battlesbridge. In 1902, the British King was launched - a second barge built by Walter Cook and Son for the Keebles.

As well as building barges, Cooks yard built the steamboat Annie for Charrington the brewer. The Annie was used for taking passengers to Osea Island and it was the first of a succession of pleasure craft that ran from the beach at Maldon promenade.

In 1907 Cooks were contracted by the Admiralty to build the prototype of the newly designed Montague Whaler. This resulted in many years of work on subsequent orders. The yard built a hundred whalers during the second world war, launching one roughly every three weeks.

In the 1920s a visit by Josh Francis of the Colchester barge owners Francis and Gilders led to forty years of steady barge building work for Walter Cook and Son.

As wooden barges started to get old, their owners became reluctant to spend money repairing them and some of them were sold off for other uses. In 1937, Cooks converted the sailing barge Challenger to a yacht.

A lot of barges were requisitioned during the second world war and many of them were damaged as a result. Cooks' yard was very busy with repair work after the war ended. In those days, too, a lot of barges were coming to the yard to be fitted with diesel engines as the days of trading under sail alone began to pass.

Walter Cook retired in 1946 and the yard was taken over by his son Clifford, who had been working there since 1919.

G F Sully contracted Cook's yard to maintain all their barges, including the Hydrogen. Cooks were also contracted by the Leigh Building Company to maintain their fleet of barges, which suffered from very rough treatment and were constantly needing repair.

Clifford Cook retired in 1976 and the yard was bought by Barry Pearce and Gordon Swift, and later Roger Beckett. Cook's yard continued with barge maintenance and boat building until 1992, when the last shipwright left.

In 1999, Topsail Charters took over the yard and restored shipwrighting and rigging to their traditional place by the river there.

References

1. ^ "About TopSail Charters - Top Sailing from East Coast Maldon Essex". http://www.top-sail.co.uk/about_us.htm. Retrieved 2009-05-14. 

See also

• Thames sailing barge
• Shipbuilding
• River Blackwater, Essex
• Maldon, Essex

Coordinates: 51°43′46″N 0°41′16″E / 51.7295°N 0.6879°E / 51.7295; 0.6879