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    "markdown": "# The Vellamy Society Bulletin\n\nNumber 212  \u00b7  March 2026\n\n## Spring lecture programme\n\nThree lectures  are  arranged  for  the  spring,  all  at  the\nAssembly Rooms on Vardenne Quay at half past seven.\nOn 11  March  Dr  Aileen  Prosser will speak on the salt\nindustry of  the  upper  estuary;  on  8  April  Mr  Colm\nTarbert will describe the  1953  flood as it was recorded\nat Kellow;  and on  13  May the  Society's archivist,  Miss\nRuth Sandiman,  will  introduce  the  Harrowby  field\nbooks, which the Society acquired last autumn.\n\nMembers may  bring  one  guest  without  charge.  Tea  is\nserved from seven o'clock,  and the room is open from\nhalf past six for those who wish to look at the exhibits.\nAnyone needing a lift from the town should telephone\nthe honorary  secretary,  who  keeps  a  list  of  members\nwilling to offer one.\n\n## The Harrowby field books\n\nThe eleven  field  books  kept  by  Thomas  Harrowby\nbetween 1871 and 1904 came to the Society in October,\nthe gift  of  his  great-granddaughter,  and  are  now  with\nthe county  record  office  for  conservation.  They  are\nworking notebooks  rather  than  journals:  tide  times,\nwind, the state of the banks at  Thrimby,  the names of\nthe men who worked each reach,  and here and there a\nsketch of  a  channel  that  has  since  moved  half  a  mile.\nThe eighth  book,  which  covers  the  winter  of  1889,  is\nthe one  most  often  asked  for,  because  it  records  the\nbreach at Kellow in some detail and gives the height of\nthe water against the wall of the old lifeboat house.\n\nThe Society hopes to publish a transcript of the eighth\nbook, and would welcome help with it. What is wanted\nis not palaeography - the hand is a clear one - but local\nknowledge: field  names,  the  older  names  for  the\nreaches, and the identification of men named only by a\nsurname and  an  initial.  Members  who  could  give  an\nevening a month to this should write to the archivist.\n\n## The summer excursion\n\nThe summer excursion will be to Marnhead on Saturday\n20 June,  to  see  the  salt  pans  and  what  is  left  of  the\ntramway on the north side of the harbour.  Mr  Tarbert\nhas agreed to lead the walk,  which is about three miles\nover rough ground and is not suitable for anyone who\ncannot manage a stile.  The coach leaves the  Assembly\n\nRooms at  half  past  nine  and  is  back  by  six.  The  cost,\nincluding the coach and the entry to the harbour office,\nis fourteen pounds, and members should book with the\nexcursion secretary before 1 June.\n\n## New members and gifts\n\nThe Society  welcomes  seven  new  members  since  the\nautumn bulletin:  three  from  Vardenne,  two  from\nBraithe, one from  Kellow and one,  to the committee's\nparticular pleasure,  from  Winnipeg.  The  library  has\nreceived the  bound  volumes  of  the  Braithe  Advertiser\nfor 1928  to  1934  from  the  estate  of  the  late  Mr  E.\nLissamer, and  an  album  of  photographs  of  the  1947\nregatta from  Mrs  Prosser of  Thrimby.  Both have been\naccessioned and may be consulted on the usual notice.\n\n## Notes and queries\n\n## Notes and queries The Harrowby field books\n\nA member  asks  whether  anyone  can  identify  the\nbuilding in  the  postcard  reproduced  in  the  autumn\nbulletin. The committee's view is that it is the old ferry\noffice at  Vardenne,  pulled  down  about  1961,  but  the\nroof line does not match the photograph in the Society's\nown collection and the question is left open. Replies to\nthe archivist, please, and not to the editor, who is away\nuntil April.\n\n## Subscriptions\n\nSubscriptions for  the  year  beginning  1  April  are\nunchanged: eighteen  pounds  for  a  member,  twenty-six\npounds for  two  members  at  one  address,  and  six\npounds for members under twenty-five. Those who pay\nby standing order need do nothing. The Society remains\ngrateful to  the  twenty-one  members  who  add  a\ndonation to their subscription.\n\n## The old lifeboat house\n\nThe Society's  letter  to  the  district  council  about  the\nlifeboat house was answered in January. The building is\nnot listed  and  the  council  does  not  propose  to  seek\nlisting, but  the  officer  who  replied  confirmed  that  any\napplication to  demolish  it  would  come  before  the\nconservation panel, on which the Society has a seat. The\nnineteen members  who  wrote  in  support  of  the  letter\nare thanked.\n\n---\n\nThe committee's  view  remains  that  the  interest  of  the\nplace is the winch house and the slipway rather than the\nshed itself,  which  was  re-roofed  in  the  1960s  and  has\nlost its doors.  A  measured survey would settle what is\nleft of  the  original  fabric,  and  the  committee  is  asking\nwhether any member has the skill and the time to make\none.\n\n## From the archive: the breach of 1889\n\nThe eighth  Harrowby field book gives the night of  12\nDecember 1889  in  more  detail  than  any  other  source\nthe Society  holds.  Harrowby  was  at  Kellow  from  the\nearly evening  and  his  entries  are  timed:  the  wall  was\novertopping by  nine,  the  first  gap  was  made  at  about\nhalf past  ten,  and  by  midnight  he  put  it  at  sixty  yards\nand taking. He gives the height of the water against the\nlifeboat house  wall  as  four  feet  nine  inches,  which  is\nnine inches above the mark cut there after the flood of\n1874.\n\nWhat the book does not say is how the gap was closed,\nand the  parish  records  are  no  better.  The  rate  book\nshows a  payment  to  a  Marnhead  contractor  in  the\nspring of  1890  and  nothing  else  at  all.  If  any  member\nknows of  a  family  paper  that  mentions  the  work,  the\narchivist would be glad to hear of it.\n\nThe Society intends to print the whole of the December\nentries in the summer bulletin,  with a note on the tide\nand the  wind  of  that  week.  The  transcript  is  finished\nand is being checked against the original at the record\noffice.\n\n## The photograph collection\n\nCataloguing has reached the end of the Vardenne boxes:\neleven hundred  prints  and  about  four  hundred\nnegatives, of  which  rather  more  than  half  are  now\nidentified at least to a street or a reach. The catalogue is\na card index and will stay one until the  Society can be\nreasonably sure  that  whatever  replaces  it  could  be\nmaintained by whoever is doing the work in ten years'\ntime.\n\nCopies can  be  supplied  to  members  for  a  charge\ncovering the  print  and  the  postage.  The  Society  does\nnot hold  the  copyright  in  every  image  and  will  say  so\nwhere that  is  the  case;  where  the  photographer  is\nunknown, prints are supplied on the usual undertaking.\n\n## The estuary in 1926\n\nA hundred years ago this spring the harbour board was\ndeciding whether to dredge the bar,  and the papers of\n\nthe argument  are  worth  reading.  The  board's  engineer\nwanted a  channel  of  fourteen  feet  and  got  eleven;  the\nfishermen wanted  the  bar  left  alone  and  were  not\nconsulted until  the  decision  had  been  taken;  and  the\ncompromise was  arrived  at  in  a  meeting  of  which  no\nminutes were kept at all. The channel silted again within\nfour years.\n\nThe Society holds copies of the engineer's two reports\nand of  the  petition  against  them,  which  carries  a\nhundred and  ninety-one  signatures  and  is  the  best  list\nwe have  of  the  men  working  out  of  Vardenne  in  that\nyear. Members  are  welcome  to  consult  it,  and  a\ntranscript of the signatures is being prepared.\n\n## Mr E. Lissamer\n\nMembers will  be  sorry  to  learn  of  the  death  in\nNovember of  Mr  Edward  Lissamer,  who  joined  the\nSociety in 1974 and served on the committee for eleven\nyears, five  of  them  as  honorary  treasurer.  He  was  a\npatient and exact man who kept the accounts in a hand\nnobody could  misread,  and  he  had  a  memory  for  the\nestuary's boats  that  the  Society  will  not  replace.  His\nlibrary has come to us under his will and will be listed in\nthe next bulletin.\n\n## Visits and walks\n\nFour walks are arranged for the summer, each of about\ntwo hours and none of them strenuous. On 6 June, the\nVardenne quays with Mr Tarbert; on 4 July, the training\nwall and  the  east  bank,  tide  permitting,  with  Miss\nSandiman; on 1 August, the Kellow marshes, led jointly\nwith the county wildlife trust;  and on  5  September,  the\ntown's chapels.  All  start  at  half  past  ten  from  the\nAssembly Rooms  unless  the  programme  card  says\notherwise.\n\nMembers are  asked  to  book  for  the  marshes  walk,\nwhich is limited to twenty and needs boots. The others\nneed no  booking  and  no  charge  is  made,  though  the\ncollection at the end goes to the room fund.\n\n## Committee news\n\nThe annual general meeting will be held at the Assembly\nRooms on  Tuesday  19  May  at  seven  o'clock.  The\nofficers all  offer  themselves  for  re-election  except  the\nhonorary treasurer, who does not, and nominations for\nthat office  should  reach  the  secretary  in  writing  a\nfortnight before the meeting. The accounts to 31 March\nwill be circulated with the summer bulletin.\n\nThe committee  has  agreed  to meet  the  increase  in the room hire  from  the  reserve  rather  than  from\nsubscriptions, and to review that at the annual general\nmeeting.\n\n## Reviews\n\n*A History  of  the  Marnhead  Salt  Trade*, by  J.  Cavenshaw\n(Vardenne, 2025,  214  pp).  This is a careful book and a\nslightly frustrating one. Cavenshaw has worked through\nthe harbour board's papers properly and his chapter on\nthe tramway is the best account we have. But he is not\nmuch interested  in  the  pans  themselves,  and  a  reader\nwho wants  to  know  how  salt  was  actually  made  at\nMarnhead will  have  to  go  back  to  Sandiman.\nRecommended, with that reservation.\n\n## Letters\n\nSir -  your correspondent's  note in the autumn  bulletin\non the  naming  of  Croyde  Gut  may  interest  members\nwho know the Ordnance sheets of 1897 and 1923. The\nname appears  on  neither,  and  the  reach  is  called\nCrowder's Gut on both. Whether Croyde is a correction\nor a  corruption  I  cannot  say,  but  the  older  form  is  at\nleast the surveyed one. - R. Vale, Thrimby.\n\n## Wanted: the Vardenne ferry\n\nThe Society  is  trying  to  establish  when  the  Vardenne\nferry stopped  running.  The  date  usually  given  is  1961,\nwhich is the year the ferry office was pulled down,  but\nthe office  may  well  have  stood  empty  for  some  time\nbefore that.  A  member  recalls  being  taken  across  as  a\nchild in the summer  of  1958  and is sure the boat was\nstill working  then;  another  remembers  it  ending  just\nafter the war. A timetable, a ticket, or a photograph with\na date on the back would settle it.\n\nThe same member has given the  Society a copy of the\n1957 timetable for the Marnhead bus, which connected\nwith the  ferry  and  may  therefore  date  its  last  summer\nmore exactly  than  anything  else  we  hold.  It  is  on  the\nnotice board  at  the  Assembly  Rooms  for  anyone  who\nwants to look at it.\n\n## The chapels survey\n\nThe survey  of  the  town's  chapels,  begun  in  2019  and\ninterrupted twice,  is  now  complete  for  the  four\nbuildings still standing and for two of the three that are\nnot. What  remains  is  the  Bethel  on  Kellow  Lane,  of\nwhich no  plan  and  only  one  photograph  have  been\nfound. The survey will be printed as an occasional paper\nin the  autumn,  and  the  members  who  took  part  are\n\nasked to check their entries before then.\n\nThe Society  is  grateful  to  the  trustees  of  two  of  the\nchapels for  access  to  their  records,  and  to  the  county\narchivist for the loan of a plan that had been catalogued\nunder the wrong parish for sixty years.\n\n## Membership\n\nMembership stood at two hundred and six at the end of\nJanuary, four more than a year ago and the first increase\nsince 2019.  Twenty-two  members  live  outside  the\ncounty and six outside the country; the Society posts the\nbulletin to  all  of  them  and  would  rather  do  that  than\nlose them.  Anyone  who  would  prefer  it  by  e-mail\nshould tell the secretary,  who keeps a list and is happy\nfor it to grow.\n\n## Notices\n\nThe Society's thanks go to the members who helped at\nthe December sale,  which raised a hundred and twelve\npounds for the room fund,  and to  Mrs  Tarbert for the\nloan of the tables.\n\nThe room  fund  stood  at  three  hundred  and  eighty\npounds at  the  end  of  January.  The  committee  thanks\nthe members  who  have  given  to  it,  and  reminds\neveryone that  the  fund  exists  to  keep  the  Assembly\nRooms available  to  the  Society  rather  than  to\naccumulate.\n\nCopy for  the  summer  bulletin  should  reach  the  editor\nby 15 May. Short notes are as welcome as articles, and a\nquery that has been in the back of a member's mind for\nyears is often the most useful thing in an issue.",
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