Burnham-on-Crouch waterfront's heritage is being restored

Since the beginning of time, people have sailed its river and it is still one of the best yachting stations on the east coast, continuing to be thronged with lovers of sailing.

As well as enjoying the Crouch (apart from the Thames, the most southerly of all Essex estuaries) and the wide open sea beyond, their focus has been (and still is) the “jumble of eve and roof-tree and dormer”, of “warm red and yellow brickwork, set off by white painted weatherboarding”, which characterises the town quay.

Nowadays, more often than not, those salt-weathered adventurers can be seen patronising the comfortable bars of the Royal Corinthian, Burnham Sailing and Royal Burnham yacht clubs, or in the snug surroundings of the Anchor Hotel and Ye Olde White Harte.

It was in that latter hostelry that I recently met members of the Burnham Wharf Heritage CIC to discuss an exciting maritime project.

Although Burnham waterfront is now principally a place of pleasure and leisure, one Victorian commentator, writing in 1887, described the quay as an area of the town where “boat, barge and ship building are carried on”.

Those river-related businesses grew and grew, were refined from the early 1900s and continued to successfully operate until relatively recent times.

Each of them vied for position, shoulder-to-shoulder, on the warm water frontage and had their own time-tarred sheds and dedicated wharfs and jetties.

Foremost among them were Kings Boat Yard, Tucker Browns and Crouch Engineering. Sadly, all three are now confined to the past, but evidence of these once thriving operations can still be seen along the quay – that is if you just care to look for the clues.

Kings, actually WM William Kings and Sons Ltd, was founded in 1900, ostensibly to build and repair racing yachts.

Burnham-on-Crouch waterfront (Image: Nick Wood Photography)

They had extensive boat sheds, staging and a dedicated slipway.

The company survived both world wars and, during the second conflict, fitted out motor torpedo boats for the Royal Navy.

The trades directory for 1912 lists “J King & Co, boat builders, Quay”, “William King and Sons, shipwrights, Riverside”, as well as “King & Hines, engineers, High Street”.

They were truly once the 'Kings of Burnham'.

Tucker Browns started three years after Kings (in 1903) and were initially involved with traditional fishing smacks, but post-World War II, they also built yachts – one of their most famous later completions being Ted Heath’s Morning Cloud of 1969.

In the 1912 directory they were "Tucker, Brown & Co, yacht outfitters, Coronation Road”.

Slightly later Crouch Engineering was born in 1919 and was run by three generations of the Tucker family. They worked on everything from yachts to coasters and installed “new-fangled” engines in hitherto sail-only Thames barges.

One of those barges was the 65-ton Sepoy of Dover, wrecked off Cromer in 1933 and the subject of a famous RNLI rescue (but that’s another story).

Of the previously mentioned yacht clubs, Burnham Sailing Club was the one most favoured by those who worked for those quayside businesses.

It was established in 1930 and is thankfully still going strong.

It has its own period clubhouse (built in 1935) with an associated jetty. Kings, Browns and Crouch were all originally based at the western end of the quay, where the aptly named Kings Wharf development is now located.

Further on still is Burnham Sailing Club.

The restored Kings Wharf jetty (Image: Nick Wood Photography)

All of this is now, quite rightly, a designated conservation area, but sadly, since the demise of Kings and Tucker Browns in 1990 and then Crouch Engineering in 2004, their hitherto busy wharfs and jetties have been slowly deteriorating (as has the original Burnham Sailing Club jetty).

They could easily be confined to rot into the tide were it not for the 'cavalry' - in the form of Burnham Wharf Heritage CIC, a community interest company determined to restore and recover these important monuments to Burnham’s maritime industrial heritage.

This small team of directors, secretary and dedicated volunteers already has support from some important players and stakeholders, not least historical advice from Burnham’s own museum (based in Tucker Brown’s old rigging shop).

Much work has already been undertaken resurrecting Kings Wharf jetty, including its planking, a beautifully restored winch and a jib.

There is still a lot more to be done to return Burnham’s quay to its wharfs and jetties heyday, but based on this most impressive start, these important pieces of coastal history are in safe hands.

• You can support and follow the latest work of the Burnham Wharf Heritage CIC at burnhamwharfheritage.org.