Purton Hulks - the shore of sunken ships (11 photos + 1 video)

One of the largest ship graveyards in the UK was not created by chance, but by the deliberate sinking of dozens of old trawlers and barges. This ship graveyard is located near the village of Purton on the east bank of the River Severn, in Gloucestershire, UK.





About two hundred years ago, a canal was dug between Gloucester and Sharpness to bypass a particularly treacherous section of the River Severn. Opened in 1827, the canal was 26 metres wide, 5.5 metres deep and could accommodate ships weighing up to 600 tonnes. At the time, it was the widest and deepest canal in the world.



The canal runs alongside the River Severn for most of its length. Near Purton, there is a point where less than 50 metres of land separates the canal from the river. During spring tides, when the river overflowed its banks, the distance between the river and the canal was no more than the width of a towpath.





In 1909 the bank collapsed near Purton. To solve the problem, Mr. A. J. Cullis, the canal company's chief engineer, devised a plan. He proposed to run old ships aground along the Severn bank near Purton to act as a barrier and prevent the narrow strip of land between the river and the canal from washing away. Numerous ships were towed from Sharpness Dock and deliberately run aground. These ships were placed as far from the shore as possible, with holes drilled into their hulls so that subsequent tides would silt them up, rendering them immobile.



This fortification process continued for over sixty years, during which time around eighty ships were intentionally moored there.

The site gained notoriety in the early 2000s when it was featured on a BBC programme. Soon after, a conservation group called the Friends of Purton began excavating and cataloguing some of the ships that lay there. Among their finds is the Harriett, which was lost in February 1944 at Stonebench Bend on the Sharpness to Gloucester Canal after colliding with a motor barge. Harriett is believed to be the only surviving example of a Kennet barge in the world. The wreck of Harriett has been designated a historic monument and is included in the National Register of Historic Vessels.



Another notable vessel is the Dispatch, the only surviving example to feature an innovative composite hull made of iron and wood, which is extremely strong and has survived at least two collisions.

Among the latest ships to be stranded are about a dozen built during the Second World War. One of the ships was removed from its berth at Purton in 1990 and taken to Gloucester Docks as an exhibit in the Waterways Trust museum. It was later scuttled in 2012.