Thank you Steve for coming across the water to entertain and inform us with a remarkable and unique collection of slides recording the social and economic history of the Thames over the past hundred years.
|
|
|
|
|
| Meeting Report June 2003 | ||||
| Our meeting on the 1st June featured the slides of Steve Spouse from Plumstead. These were a diverse collection of Shipping on the Thames during the last century. Some were slides of black and white photos from private collections, some from prints rescued literally from the dustbin and some were from a colleague in the Great Lakes area of Canada. The balance was from the collection of Steve and his brother, which they started in the early nineteen sixties. Whilst the range of shipping shown was extensive Steve does have a leaning towards tugs, with shots of them in all situations from London down to Gravesend. Many photos were from times when wharves, mills and docks lined the river and Tilbury was in relative open countryside. Slides of the last tall ships race to visit London and pictures of notable visitors to the Thames came thick and fast. Pictures of ships in the London dock systems, Surrey Commercial, the Royals and the West India brought on pangs of nostalgia. Most of these are now areas of office and housing development. The Canadian connection followed the ex London tug Avenger which left the Thames in the mid eighties. It followed the tug�s early days in the Lakes and the necessary modifications made to her. A collection of prominent �Lakers� was also shown, a lot of which must by now have gone for scrap. Steve�s evening ended with an outstanding collection of slides of ships in the Thames at night. Thank you Steve for coming across the water to entertain and inform us with a remarkable and unique collection of slides recording the social and economic history of the Thames over the past hundred years. |
||||