Map of Southwold.
Southwold is close to the most Easterly point of Britain.
That honour actually goes to Lowestoft which is just to the North.
It is on the coast, nearly at the most Northerly point of Suffolk.
It sits at the mouth of the River Blyth, which forms a harbour for small fishing
boats and pleasure craft.
Southwold is actually the town, which is up on a hill.
The part we know best is Blackshore, which forms the North bank of the River Blyth.
The inhabitants of Southwold feel that Blackshore is just the bit down by the
river, but those of us in Blackshore know that it is a place in its own right.
We arrived in Southwold, aboard Duet, in the Autumn of 1992. We had come down the East coast from the river Ore.
We had heard a lot about Southwold on our travels.
From most beer drinkers, we had heard of it as Mecca.
It is the home of Adnams Brewery!
From sailors, some of whom had visited Southwold, we heard all sorts:
"It's very difficult to enter.",
"There's nowhere to tie up",
"It's the most beautiful place on the East coast.",
"The best Fish and Chips in the world."
Needless to say, none of these was completely true, or completely false:
- It isn't that hard to enter, follow the instructions of the Harbourmaster.
But you can get it wrong.
- When we first arrived there were no pontoon moorings, so for the modern marina
sailor, there was nowhere to tie up.
However the traditional, fixed stage mooring works fine and has been used for
centuries.
- It is very beautiful.
- The Fish and Chips at the Harbour Inn were very good, and people came for miles on
frying night (Friday).
Sadly with several changes of management, that is no longer true.
We stayed at Southwold until 2006, so we had time to development some favourite haunts, and to make many really good friends.
The Harbour Inn
The Harbour Inn in a flood.
The Rhum Ould Bouys at The Harbour Inn.
The Harbour Inn is a pub right by the riverside.
The public moorings at Southwold are immediately in front of the pub, barely
50 metres across the car park.
When we were first at Southwold, The Harbour Inn was managed by
Mike & Jenny Turner.
They made us extremely welcome. They had a policy of generally encouraging
local trade, treating tourists as a necessary but irritating evil.
Despite the picture, The Harbour Inn is not that close to the water.
This was during quite a serious flood in 1999.
The picture was taken from our boat on the public mooring stage.
All the water is normally car park, so you can see how close it was.
We spent most of our evenings there, during the first few winters.
We had almost no heating on Duet, there was no power on the public mooring stage
and the pub had a blazing fire.
Sadly after about 5 years, Mike & Jenny decided to move on.
They were replaced by Rob & Virginia.
There was a lot of alteration to the pub at this stage, including the addition
of a restaurant.
The main intention of the new managers, was to change the pub into a very
upmarket sea-food restaurant.
Unfortunately this was to the detriment of the bar trade.
The restaurant plan didn't really work out, and Rob & Virginia were encouraged
to move on.
The new owners Colin & Katie are not really interested in local trade at all.
The vast majority of their income comes from the summer tourist trade.
The prices have gone up at every opportunity and it is now very rare to find a local
drinking at the bar.
Duet's Stage
Duet's Stage, with Amberjack as well.
After we had been in Southwold for several years, and realised that the Rusty
project was going to take a very long time, we decided to purchase our own stage.
We say purchase, but in fact you merely buy the right to pay a yearly lease to the
local council, for a stretch of mud!
You have to provide and maintain your own stage, and in fact the council check
regularly that the stage is safe.
If not it must be immediately corrected.
Stages only rarely come up for sale.
We were lucky that a man we knew slightly, he lived close by the river, wanted to
sell his.
It was sad as well, he was only selling because of ill health.
He was 'ornery' in a classic Suffolk way.
He was very particular about who he would sell to, or more specifically to whom
he wouldn't sell.
Because of that we got it at a reasonable price.
It seemed hugely expensive at the time, however we could have sold it the next day
for at least 10% profit.
It was then home to Duet, until the year before we left, when we sold it on, at a
startling profit, to a nice man that the original owner would have approved of.
For much of the time we shared it with Amberjack, which belonged to a good friend
of ours, Andrew Osborne.
Di's Cafe
Soozy at Di's.
Greg at Di's.
Di's cafe, aka The Harbour Tearooms, is located about halfway along Blackshore.
When we first came to Southwold, The Harbour Tearooms was managed by Joan and
Billy. They were not attractive souls, and contrived to detract from its dingy
demeanour.
To be fair they were never rude or unkind to us, however it didn't seem particularly
inviting.
In recent times they have retired and it is now run by our great friend, Di Church.
She has brought brightness and joy to the whole area.
While we were still in Southwold, we had a routine for Saturdays, of going into town,
buying the Saturday Guardian, (which we found enough to last the week), and moving
into Di's for the rest of the day. Many of our friends would drop in during the day.
It was rather like holding court.
If Di's changes hands or closes, it will remove one of the major attractions
along the river Blyth at Southwold.
It is a simple establishment, essentially a large wooden shed, raised up a little
to avoid the floods.
At one end are the kitchens, and most of the rest is tables and chairs.
One wall overlooking the river is all windows, which makes a fascinating spectacle,
because there is always something happening.
The inside has been decorated in a classic seafront style.
Sand, water and beach huts painted on the walls.
Decorated with shells, hag stones and fishing floats.
Harbour Marine Services
Harbour Marine Services.
HMS is the largest of the three boatyards along Blackshore. The others being
Gary Brown, and Justin Ladd.
While we were building Rusty she was standing in a cradle immediately adjacent
to the boatyard, and we were always on good terms with John Buckley who owns HMS
and his staff.
John provided very useful advice when we first purchased Rusty. Actually taking
our plans seriously and helping us work out costs and time scales.
In the end we mostly avoided having boatyards doing any of the work on Rusty, but
none the less our chandlery bill at HMS must have helped to keep them in beer.
Over the years we saw all sorts of changes at HMS, however, to give them their due,
they managed to continue trading when all up and down the coast, boatyards were
failing.
When it came to launch time for Rusty, John, and of course the ever present Greg,
performed extremely well, under what must have been quite a strain. We had an
audience of about 50 friends and relatives come to watch the launch.
During the summer following that we were in Southwold with Rusty afloat, we kept
her on moorings belonging to HMS, where John (who also lived on his boat along
the pontoon), was always helpful.
Adnams Brewery
Adnams Dray outside the Brewery.
Southwold Smack Rally.
One of the main attractions of Southwold is the extremely good beer brewed there
by Adnams.
Prior to coming to Southwold, Nick had already developed a taste for their bitter.
In fact way before having a boat and while living well inland.
Adnams beers have deservedly won prizes for many years amongst beer drinking
afficionados.
In addition to brewing fine beers, Adnams own all the pubs in Southwold, including
what was our local The Harbour Inn.
The current chairman, Jonathan Adnams, has kept a boat at Blackshore most of the
time that we were there. As such we got to know him quite well and he became a friend.
In addition we were often in The Harbour Inn, when he was prevailed upon to reveal
his fine voice rendering sea shanties to the accompaniment of the Rhum Ould Bouys.
It was always one of the pleasures of Southwold, when the horse drawn dray
delivered to the pubs in town. Sadly the horses and dray have now been retired.
Adnams have obviously always had a close tie to the town. For several years they
sponsored the annual Smack Rally, and also the Flying Egg competition.
