In its heyday in the 1600 and 1700’s, Skippool and its sister port of Wardleys (across the creek) handled more cargo than Liverpool. Russian boats brought flax and cotton for the mills, boats from Africa carried guano to be used for fertilizer, and rum, tobacco and sugar came in from the Carribean.
In those days, Skippool was famous/infamous for smuggling and press-gangs as well as cock-fighting to entertain the sailors.
Today it’s part sailing club and part boat graveyard. These pictures of wrecks were taken at low tide, so I’ll need to back soon at high tide to see what, if anything, floats.
This next boat may be the mv “Good Hope”, but I’m not sure. So far my research has shown that it might be the “Good Hope”, it might have been built in 1830, it might have been a trawler, and it might also have sailed to Australia. The place was deserted so there was no one to ask and I don’t know the first thing about boats. More trips definitely required. Not that I need any excuse to revisit as I love the place.
I do like the fancy little gate that makes it nice and private and protected!
1 Comment
sheilahwatson · 30 March 2015 at 20:58
Very interesting. Had no idea of the history of the place