Whitstable Community Museum are custodians of many historical photograph collected by Douglas West who moved to Whitstable in 1914. He took over the Whitstable Photographers (now the Black Dog) in 1946 and collected many images of Whitstable as early as 1857. As historical evidence, a photograph can often reveal more than the photographer appreciated.
I-Spy the Neptune Public House on the beach at Island Wall. The camera is pointing East along the shoreline. In the distance is the former headquarters of the Oyster Company (now a fish restuarant) located at The Horsebridge where horse-and-carts went out on the hard sea-bed at low tide to collect the cargo from the Thames barges.
I-Spy tall masts of boats on the right of the photograph which are at an angle. The craft have been hauled up slipways on the beach by capstans: they are in for repairs, or are new vessels under construction, in the four boatyards that use to exist between the Neptune and the Horsebridge. The Gamecockwas built in 1906 at Collars Yard which was half-way along.
I-Spy the absence of the sea-wall which now follows the seaward boundary of the former boatyards. Also absent is the shingle beach which today helps to break the force of the waves and defend the town from flooding.
I-Spy a pier in the distance extending in to the sea. This started by Middle Wall Car Park where previously there was a boatyard and a trading company that used Thames barges.
I-Spy that the nearest Thames barge on the left has a slack line to its mooring. The craft has a flat bottom and is sitting on the hard sea-bed which has a very gentle gradient. Oyster Yawls like The Gamecock had a single keel so they stayed further out in The Swale moored to a metal stake screwed in to the sea-bed.
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