The Millionaire without Money
Diana breaking up in Durlston Bay, 1922 Maggie Fenwick Collection
“My name is George Winn, the red sail Thames spritty barge man and old age pensioner, the millionaire without money…. It’s for you to question if it’s a fault of mine or the fault of the hand that put the tail on the cow; this is my story and I’m sticking to it, blow high or blow low”
George Winn, Westcliff-on-sea 1949
A great favourite on the Raybel bookshelf is ‘Sailing Barge Master’, the self-penned life-story of George Winn, who first goes off to sail in 1878, aged 8, on a working barge near his birthplace next the Thames at Chelsea – at that time no more than a little river village.
Grown up, George moves to Sittingbourne, becomes skipper on Kentish brick barges working out of Milton Creek, then moves on to bigger coasting barges, crossing to Belgium and France, and sailing round the southeast coast of England. Eventually he gets his desire to ‘steer his own ship’, taking on the ownership of a ketch barge, Diana, only for his dream to be smashed on a Dorset beach, April Fool's Day 1922. Writing his story at the end of a long life, George ponders whether he was ever really doing the steering.
Which, I guess, about sums up 2020 for us all.
In March last year, it felt as though the Raybel project was starting to get properly underway. We’d brought the dry dock around to the Creek, had a willing band of volunteers, great staff in place and were looking forward to some fun and exciting quayside events. Most of which then went on hold, like everything else.
To be fair, we did get Raybel into the dry dock, ran some creative workshops over the summer, along with an art competition, put on the first phase of our exhibition in the Dolphin Barge Museum, got the wharfside prepped for the restoration to start and then – come December – saw the shipwrights begin work. But, hey, that’s, like, nothing compared to what would have happened.
Well, maybe. ‘Blow high or blow low’, as George says. There are ways in which a quieter year than we’d had planned has worked out. We’ve had the freedom and flexibility to get ourselves more firmly established than would have been the case without the lockdowns. Our main funder, National Lottery Heritage Fund, has helped – we haven’t felt under pressure to stick to schedule and plans, but trusted to work our way through. Some lessons for a ‘new normal’ there, in letting community heritage organisations, especially new and small ones, explore and find out what works through doing and experimenting.
We had time to meet new friends Chris and Vanessa, who had taken on Kent Sail Cargo, and were then delighted to formalise working together by appointing them as new Raybel Charters directors. That’s brought us a much stronger local connection in north Kent.
There’s been some adaptation – more virtual stuff, with online drop-ins, more social media, video-making, the time to get the website looking good and starting the archive page.
And more time as well to think and plan. The ideas we came up with for the regeneration of Lloyd’s wharf – which we were thrilled went down so well with Swale councillors – were really a product of lockdown inertia and idle reminiscing about inspiring trips we’d made to DeCeuval, in Amsterdam’s north docks, the Black Country Museum and Blyth Tall Ships. Most likely these ideas would never have gone further without the pause we were forced to make in the spring and summer.
We’ve used the downtime to think more about extending our horizons, about the future of Raybel Charters, letting our imaginations flow a bit. We’re beginning to see a future as a Thames estuary social enterprise, working to connect people and communities with the heritage and nature of the river. Loads of ideas here – more barge restorations, ecological regeneration of derelict wharf-sides, traditional boatyard development, sail cargo on the canals, food justice projects, creative and cultural events. But flowing through everything a concern and love for the heritage, ecology and environment of rivers, waterways and seas – the stuff that makes us all ‘millionaires without money’. In the end, George's story is one of gratitude.
Gareth on Raybel
Sailing Barge Master is published by Chaffcutter Books @ £12.95 ISBN 978-0-9560596-0-4.