Sailing towards Harty ferry during the first week of September we passed by the disused Turkey Cement Works Dock on Elmley Island between Ridham Dock and Grovehurst Jetty on the ‘north/south’ section of the West Swale.
Earlier this year I had spotted a trailer-able yacht of around 26 to 28 ft out of the water at the top of an old hard once used by a short-stay yacht club. The boat, it turned out, belonged to a member of the community on Elmley island.
I spoke to the Manager of the Iron Wharf, but no light on what was going on was known.
Then I remembered, I’d had communication with the owner of the yacht, Gareth Fulton. The chap works for the nature reserve. I sent off an email…
However, it picked out digging along the dock sides.
A few days later news came that there had been a long reach excavator in use on the site and with a free day it was put to use in clearing mud and debris from the old dock bottom.
They have plans for the dock and Gareth has ‘invited’ us in on Whimbrel. It won’t be this season, but next year, a high probability.
Having been part of a family (See: The May Flower A Barging Childhood) which helped to reinstate the use of Twinney Dock in Upchurch, then two years later Callows Wharf, Upchurch, up at the head of Milfordhope Creek. I just love it when any disused facility finds a modern use.
The Turkey Cement Works have been written about in ‘The Jottings of a Thames Estuary Ditch-crawler‘ and mentioned elsewhere. The cement works on the island lasted for no more than seventy years. It supported a population of around 250 people. There was a school and church. Parts of the school can be seen in a cluster of tress towards the farm house.
I visited the dock some years ago and took a raft of photographs – thought then as others had in earlier times when a club used a slipway beside the decayed jetty, that the dock could still be useful.
Gareth promised more info, I must work on that and winkle out a little more…
Elmley Nature Reserve: www.elmleynaturereserve.co.uk