Refit.

As many readers will be aware, local engineering company BATT Cables recently declared insolvency and are currently being wound up. I have been fortunate to have been contacted by local Councillor Nicola Taylor who has provided me with some background information about the situation, and the way forward in the future. Nicola has regularly provided me with information about issues and news in the local area that I might otherwise have no idea about. The information below, and the photograph above are courtesy of her, and I would like to thank her for her efforts on this matter and the other ones that she has contributed towards in the past. Nicola writes:- "Newlands have been in  contact with Chris and myself and we raised the issue of the history of the site. The plans they showed us had substantial changes to the site which will be given over to warehousing. I stressed the history and and put them in touch with Ken Chamberlain so he could explain about the sites history in more detail. I need to chase up the outcome of that meeting. I had hoped that the Pom Pom name could be incorporated in the site as well so that we do not lose this historical reference.  They had agreed to reuse any historical features and to include these in the Planning application. As I sit on Planning I have to remain undetermined before the application is presented before committee so I cannot give an opinion, but I have told them that I would like to see the history of the site being sensitively considered".  

News reached me last week that local vicar The Reverend Jim Bennett was retiring after serving for several years at St. Augustine's Church in Slade Green. Personally, I have known Jim for quite a few years since he was a senior lay member of the congregation of Christ Church Erith. I first met him when he was the chair of the Friends of Christ Church Erith, and I was asked to join the governing committee of the group as somebody who was a member of the local community but previously unconnected with the church. He was always interesting, very intelligent and sometimes extremely funny. What I did not know at the time was he was studying for the priesthood and he later left Christ Church in order to take orders. Since then he has been running the nearby St. Augustine's Church located in Slade Green. I have seen quite a few comments online from local people and indeed his own parishioners who have expressed regrets that he is now taking retirement. I understand that the Church requires priests to retire when they reach the age of 70. Jim has certainly served the local community extremely well during his time, and I do hope that he enjoys a well-deserved retirement. At the time of writing, I do not know who will be taking over St. Augustine's as the new priest in charge, but I do wish them well. Comments to me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.

As many regular readers will be aware, I having in the past written at some length that in the late 1980's and early 1990's, I was deeply involved in volunteer run offshore radio station Radio Caroline; indeed, I spent the summer of 1990 as a presenter and junior engineer on board the Radio Caroline ship, the Ross Revenge - click on any photo above to see a larger view - which at the time was moored in international waters approximately 15 miles off the North Foreland in the North Sea, and therefore outside of British law. I'm fully aware that quite a large number of people think the Radio Caroline only at the time existed in the 1960's, but in reality, it actually broadcast at sea on a number of different ships until 1991, when due to changes in international and British law, it became impossible to continue as an offshore station. The Ross Revenge was subsequently shipwrecked and was only the second ship in history to survive being grounded on the Goodwin Sands. After this it was taken in to harbour in Dover where volunteers from the organisation started carrying out ad hoc repairs. The station was subsequently able to get a very limited one month restricted service broadcasting licence, which was mainly done to keep the name active. What is not known by many people is that the Radio Caroline brand was at the time under offer from Virgin Radio, who wanted to take over the station and re-brand themselves as Caroline. Fortunately this never happened. In the subsequent years, the ship the Ross Revenge has been moored in the River Blackwater in Essex, where it has been used once a month as a broadcasting base and also opened to the public as a floating museum. The thriving, and very popular radio station itself mainly now broadcasts from land in studios based in Strood, and also from presenters own home studios. The volunteer  run, not for profit station is now stronger and bigger than ever; nowadays as well as broadcasting several online streaming audio services, it also is available in many areas of the UK on DAB digital radio, and also on traditional AM radio on 648 medium wave, the old BBC World Service channel, where it now has a legal broadcasting licence, and was the world's first radio station to run on solar energy. The radio ship Ross Revenge has been continuously in the water since its launch after conversion into a radio ship in 1983, and is in severe need of a refit in dry dock. The Caroline organisation launched an appeal to raise money to carry out this extremely expensive procedure. The ship is so large, it can only physically go into one dry dock in the UK which is in Felixstowe. It was recently announced that due to fundraising activities and donations from listeners and other members of the public over £500,000 has currently been raised towards this goal, and the ship is due to be towed by tug into the dry dock later in the spring. The Ross Revenge is already on the historic ships register, which is the equivalent of a building achieving listed status. Prior to being a radio ship, it was the largest side fishing trawler in the world, the flagship of the Ross fishing fleet, and achieved several world records for fish catches before it was retired and sold on to the Caroline organisation and converted into the radio ship that it now is. Currently it is unclear how long the refit will take, though it will involve specialist, professional high pressure blasting the entire 220-ft long 1000 ton hull, replacing the sacrificial anodes that prevent corrosion, replacing parts of the deck and the superstructure where they have become too rusty for current purpose, and carrying out a number of other engineering tasks that are impossible while the ship is afloat. Whilst half a million sounds like a lot of money, when it comes to shipyards and major scale professional repairs and refurbishment of an existing deep sea vessel, the money is actually peanuts. The volunteer run, not for profit Caroline organisation is still trying to raise extra funds to aid the completion of the very overdue work. The Ross Revenge is now a registered charity, and has patrons including but not limited to Frances Rossi of Status Quo and singer-songwriter Chris De Burgh. Here is part of the official announcement regarding the dry docking and  refurbishment of the Ross Revenge:- "As we enter 2026 the fund to finance repairs to Ross Revenge has reached an incredible half-a-million pounds. This is a lot of money for which we take no credit - it has all been raised by YOU, through donations to our Ross Revenge charity, charity Crowdfunder, fundraisers and by purchases from our web shop. Praise must go to our generous supporters and listeners. We are immensely grateful. There is no upper limit to how much we could spend on Ross Revenge Simply put, the more money we have the more work we can put in hand, and we continue to fund raise to get as much essential work done as possible while the ship is out of the water. We hope to get Ross Revenge into to SMS dry dock at Lowestoft in the spring and we must hire a sizeable tug for the journey. As the ship is too deep to enter dry dock without assistance, we are hiring specialist buoyancy bags and divers to fit them. When inflated the ship should be lifted enough to get her into the dock. The priorities once in dry dock are sandblasting, repairing and painting the 220 ft hull and structure, servicing the sea chests, replacing the rotting wood lower decks with a hard wearing grid matting system and, if funds allow, replacing the rusting metal fore and aft decks – proudly repainting CAROLINE 648 AM once more. Everyone involved with Ross Revenge would like to send our gratitude and appreciation to our listeners for your continued support".

The historic photo above (click on it to see a larger version) shows the old Pembroke Road Level Crossing back in 1970, along with a London - bound train which has just passed over the level crossing on its way to Belvedere Station. I can recall walking over this crossing with my Mum when I was very small, and remember looking into the gate operators little hut, to see him drinking tea. The level crossing was replaced with a metal footbridge back in the late 70's / early 80's. The road in the background has not changed very much, though the building on the left of the photograph is now a private house. I think back then it was a women's hair dressers, though I am not certain. Can anyone who has better knowledge please let me know? 

Returning to the story of the Ross Revenge charity appeal, here is the official video explaining what is happening and what the refit work will entail. Comments and feedback to  me at hugh.neal@gmail.com.