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If you walk along Harbour Crescent, near Beacon Hill, you will find a cement plaque inscribed;
"These houses were a gift to the Borough of Harwich, from the people of Norway, to rehouse victims of the floods of 31st January 1953"
It refers to the 6 houses facing the seafront here, & another 18 located in Norway Crescent, the name dedicated to the nation who stepped in to help those made homeless by the freak flood of 1953
Norway has always been grateful to the British for liberating them from Nazi occupation, so the nation wanted to demonstrate their feelings, when the east coast was devastated by the high tides...
All 24 houses were supplied in flatpack form & were designed to last a couple of decades, but to this day, all remain on site, some updated with white plastic cladding, but others still in the original black timber cladding...
The basic design of a timber frame, with tarpaulin sheeting, clad with tongue & groove boarding, has stood the test of time & the worst weather the North Sea can throw their way...
Their construction has proven the Scandinavian flatpack home concept to be far better than temporary, & I believe, this form of housing should be a pattern in this country, rather than the over-reliance on bricks & mortar...
Written May 1, 2013
'We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea' is the 7th book by Arthur Ransom in his still popular, 'Swallows & Amazons' series...
It was written in 1937 & marks a departure from the settings of the previous 6 novels, reflecting the author's own move to East Anglia, where he discovered the delights of such places as Pin Mill & The 0rwell estuary, in his yacht, The Nancy Blackett...
In the other stories, Ransome disguised the location of where the nautical adventures took place, but in 'We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea' he alters his style to make specific locational references to places that might still be found to this day...
The plot is based on the theme of a (mis)adventure, caused by the boat engine running out of fuel, so allowing the craft to drift dangerously close to a sand bank, necessitating the deployment of the sails & venturing out into the North Sea...
This results in arriving in the Netherlands, rather than returning to Harwich harbour, where the author goes to some detail to record accurately, as well as mentioning the cross-channel ferry, & including the Harwich harbourmaster as 1 of the characters...
Written Feb 8, 2013
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A couple of years ago Essex County Council ran a survey find out what small-scale projects local people felt would improve their quality of life. A Parkstone resident, Russel Tye, suggested a riverside walk in what was, at the time, an overgrown wasteland through which the Dock River ran between Parkstone and Harwich Port. Essex Council agreed and so in 2009 the Captain Fryatt Riverside Walk was officially opened.
This little stretch of river runs maybe half-a-mile between the main road and the harbour gates with an industrial estate on one side and an out-of-town supermarket on the other.
The river was dredged of its man-made waste, the overgrowth cut back, clearing a footpath along its length, and a couple of vandal-proof benches erected. This has created a pleasant little haven in the middle of what is still very much an industrial area and the planting of a row of Black Poplar trees will eventually further the walk's relative isolation.
The path now makes for quite a pleasant off-road shortcut between the port and Parkstone village.
A Quick Note About Captain Fryatt
Charles Algernon Fryatt was a local mariner who during the First World War was captain of the steamship SS Brussels. The Germans navy was blockading the trade routes between Britain and the Continent but Captain Fryatt, as was the case with most merchant mariners, was willing to run the blockade.
After several succesful crossings, including on one occasion where he managed to outrun a chasing German submarine, he and his ship were eventually captured in June 1916 as he was returning from a trip to Rotterdam.
The Germans, I assume wishing to make an example of him, tried him for espionage and he was summarily shot later that year.
Updated Jul 26, 2010
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