Landmark crane came crashing down
PICTURE No 1: Many references have been made recently relating to the Towner and Bannister families of Newhaven.
In the first picture we see local flour miller George Stone's daughter Winifred, seated in her husband-to-be's Benz motor car, said to be the first motor car owned in Newhaven. It has been referred to recently in the articles.
Picture No 2: Interior of the marine workshops, Newhaven, south from the swing bridge on the railway side of the river. Quite an impressive building from the outside at the moment, but the interior, recently given a clear out, is just endless space.
It is hard to convey how depressing it looks when one compares it with the machinery of the photo and 21 men scattered around.
A staff group photo of 1905, taken outside the building, includes 92 workers, all wearing flat caps with the exception of five who sport bowlers. Probably clerical staff or supervisors. In 1908, there were four forges along one side, each with a smithy and his striker. The arrival of welding would no doubt have reduced the number.
The work force would no doubt have included, boiler cleaners and repairers, men from the loco sheds next door, painters and men to maintain the quay sides, landing stages, the grid irons and of course, on rare occasions, operate the three-legged sheerlegs crane.
On this subject: at the summit was a double pulley block. In its latter years, the monster spent so much time unused, that when it did lean forward to be at work above a vessel, the pulley block had spent so much time in the one position that it remained frozen to its substantial spindle. One imagines a few gallons of WD 40 would have been needed there.
Unfortunately the pulley wheel itself did revolve. I understand that at one time the famed Houdini wanted to perform a form of escape when suspended from this tripod or dive into the river and come up alive.
Whatever, the Company could not come to terms over the risk problems and Newhaven missed out on a bit more in its history.
Pre-war it was painted buff with green bands at its numerous joins and after 1939 it was painted grey. One would think it was such a prominent structure that any camouflage could hardly disguise it.
We have an excellent series of photos taken from the top by an intrepid camera man, featuring the area below, the old swing bridge open and the famed Celtic passing through on her way to Asham Cement Works (above the Southese) for another cargo to the Isle of Wight. Some time in the 1960s I would imagine.
There was a crude form of ladder on the top of the back leg of the legs and with no fear of heights the privileged could reach the top. This was done several times by our dear old friend Bob Holden on special days involving the lifeboat, christenings of, etc.
The flag would boldly fly from its little staff at the summit and then another climb to bring it down. Sheerlegs was lastly used by a local firm Metric in an engine refit on a large dredger.
Then around 6am one fine day, it was over the water, the bottom of the front legs partly cut through by torch and the bottom of the rear one cut right through. She then crashed into the water in a mighty splash.
The bottoms of the legs had remained on the quayside and they were dragged ashore and cut off at lengths as they came in. Quite an operation. Suddenly a landmark was missing as one motored down the Ouse Valley from Lewes.
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Weather for Lewes
Thursday 09 February 2012
Today
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 2 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: North east
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Sunny spells
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