Houseboats of Leigh-on-Sea

By Carol Edwards

Following the end of the 1st World War affordable housing was hard to find and many families rented or built their own houseboats. They had no electricity, running water or proper sanitation. The houseboats were moored near the ancient fishing village of Leigh on Sea, Essex. Although their children attended the local school and there was a sense of community the local council wanted to evict the growing number of people living on the water. This proved impossible for when the tide was out the houseboats rested on land owned by the Salvation Army at Hadleigh. The last houseboats were demolished in the 1950's.

• Language: English
• Publisher: PB Software
• Release date: Nov 18, 2016
• ISBN: 9780956220165

Book preview

The Life and Times of the

Houseboats of Leigh-on-Sea

The Life and Times of the

Houseboats of Leigh-on-Sea

Carol Edwards

ISBN 978-0-9562201-0-3

Publisher Carol Edwards 2009©

Acknowledgements

Dedicated with gratitude to everyone

who has contributed to this book.

My thanks to my husband Barry for his technical support.

To Marion Hough without whose continued encouragement over the years has kept me writing.

And to Chris for helping me to compile this book.

Contents

Introduction

Houseboats

Leigh North Street School

A Council – The Salvation Army – Houseboats

The Taj Mahal

‘Comet’ Houseboat

Ellen Lawson

Alfred Mark Lawson

Edith Lawson

‘Joan’ Houseboat

Holidays on a Houseboat

The Minorette, Winvic and The St Kilda

Stanley Hughes

The Hughes Family

Shelter from the Bombs

The Moorings

The Rosa John

Rosa Attersley

Ruben Attersley

The original plans drawn by John Attersley for

The Attersley Photographic Collection

Houseboats from an Upstairs Window

Two Wheels and a Basket

Visit to my Aunt Jeanette

Seaside Memories

The Maria

The Demise of the Houseboat Colony

Hulls and Wrecks

Introduction

Writing this book came about more by accident than design. As a freelance writer I was more accustomed to searching out material for a good article, or looking for interesting people to interview in the hope of selling the piece to the local newspaper. But fate took a hand when I was given the opportunity to volunteer one day a week at the Heritage Centre, in the High Street, Leigh Old Town.

Leigh Heritage Centre today

Just a few weeks after joining the Leigh Society a couple came in and having browsed round the centre the man approached me and asked if we had any information on the houseboats of Leigh, as his mother had lived on one as a child. I expressed surprise as I had no knowledge of there ever having been houseboats in the Leigh area, although well aware of those moored at Pitsea and Benfleet, just up the river. A search of our local history books on offer at the centre proved fruitless (unbeknown to me a booklet by John Attersley on the very subject was out of stock ņ waiting to be re-printed).

Seeing an opportunity for a good article, I asked to interview his mother and within two weeks was on my way to her flat where the story of these houseboats began to unfold. After that visit I decided to research a little further into the subject, first by spending time in the local studies section at Southend Library, next to read John Attersley’s account of his life by the creek during the 1920s through to 1932, and finally a request through the letters page of the local paper for any information on the houseboats. I was over time to receive seventeen responses to my request. They came by phone, email and post. Without these individuals willingness to talk about theirs or their families recollections of life afloat and also share with me their personal photographs of these times, there would have been no book, and the history of the houseboats of Leigh and those who lived on them between the two world wars, might well have been lost forever.

Carol Edwards 2009

Houseboats

Houseboats are defined, as craft with quarters designed for use in sheltered waters and are primarily intended for human habitation. In coastal regions beached hulls – a hull is the frame of the boat, essential to keep out the water and acts as the floor and wall of the vessel – have been used as homes in the past. Primitive man is said to have turned over beached hulls, cut out a door, then climbed inside to find somewhere to escape the elements.

Any shallow draft vessel can be used to construct a houseboat, so long as it can take the weight of a structure added on top, to increase living space. Popular among those used were Bawleys – old cockle boats originally known as Peter Boats they were a common sight on the water. Other vessels ideal for building on were barges and lighters. Barges were large flat bottomed boats, used to transport heavy goods along canals and rivers. For those working the large rivers they were normally pulled along by tugs. A lighter was a smaller version of the barge and was traditionally moved and steered by long oars called sweeps with their motive power provided by the waters current. Unlike the barge their role was to transport goods between moored ships in the Thames and the Wharf. They would also replenish provisions and fuel supplies for these same vessels. Lighter men were, until improved shipping technology, one of the most characteristic groups working in the London docks.

In 1850 when Charles Dickens published his