Houseboat 'lost' in Pillings Marina Flood

[Andrew Denny]

On 12/03/2020 at 22:11, David Mack said:

Has Pillings really been there for 20 Years? It seems like only yesterday they were in a big dispute about their connection.

It was excavated in 2006, filled in the summer of 2007.   I believe it began to take moorers in 2008.  

[Jen-in-Wellies]

3 hours ago, Andrew Denny said:

It was excavated in 2006, filled in the summer of 2007.   I believe it began to take moorers in 2008.  

Checked the cruise diary and I moved my boat there in September 2007. Low numbers of boats then, only a few dozen. No facilities building, car park largely mud.

 

[Andrew Denny]

Yes, It takes about 10 years for a marina to 'take root'. I went past at the end of 2006 in the dusk, and they had dug the basic pit but hadn't quite built the entrance. I seem to recall a stilling test in mid-2007, so they must have opened up shortly after. I recall visiting a year or two later and they were still running a diesel generator 24/7 to provide shoreline power - despite having an electricity pylon towering overhead. Somewhere I have a pic of the main building foundation marked out.  The next time I went, in 2014, it was a council of war being held by Paul Lillie with the moorers about his dispute with CRT. Physically the marina was all in place but still felt to me that it needed a bit of 'bedding in'. 

 

In the 5 years since, three moorers told me the atmosphere had got a lot more pleasant - I don't know if that was related to his moving on. 

I went back last year to interview a moorer for an article for Waterways World, and see the Baldwin Trust.

Pillings Lock has 'bedded in' very well.