One of our favourite walks over the years has been along the river bank from Shoreham to Bramber and for those of you that still tread its meandering path take a pause before you get to the cement works, look back eastwards across the river to the hills, imagine the same scene one hundred years ago and listen carefully. Within the noise of the traffic from the nearby Steyning Road you may hear the faint sibilant hiss of a steam engine and the churning of boat screws on water as the phantom river tugboat George V puffs by towing two barges back up river for reloading.
(A very rare postcard necessarily heavily reduced in resolution from our partnership collection with Marlipins Museum.)
I can’t quite get my bearings on this one. Ahead are the telegraph wires which presumably ran alongside the railway line, so I feel as if I am looking more north westerley with the railway to my right (east)?
What was the cargo?
Thanks
Ray Lawrence
Yes Ray, we’ve pondered over the location of this photo for some time and had thought the view was looking south-east. The strange thing is the telegraph poles appear to follow the curve of the river – the railway line was more straight. You can’t see it in this copy photo but in the distance above the chap in the first barge there is a cricket match going on – perhaps the cement works team?
PS The barges carried clay from Horton for use in the manufacture of the cement.
I think the position of the camera was just to the South of the Bramber bridge on the West bank:
https://www.google.com/maps/place/Bramber,+Steyning+BN44+3WE/@50.8839126,-0.3095589,109a,35y,117.5h,79.16t/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x487597ba89391a23:0xe43d3c1aa89c1662!8m2!3d50.8829015!4d-0.313035