Gareth Maeer, director of Raybel Charters, on plans for Lloyd's Wharf in Sittingbourne

Transcript

00:00Well our idea was always that this was about more than just the barge, it was

00:04about more than just Ray Bell and that the if we were going to come here then

00:10it should be almost like a catalyst or like a kickoff for some other things

00:14which happened on the site. So we always wanted it to be a broader regeneration

00:18project and that this one, the restoration of Ray Bell, would have a

00:23legacy if you like, would have some like a follow-on. So there's different ideas

00:28and there's different ways it could go and it will partly depend on where the

00:31local community wants to take it and where the local authority wants to take

00:35it, where whatever you know local businesses want to go with it as well.

00:40But we could definitely see that there's a continuation of a boating barging type

00:45activity here. We have a dry dock here now which could have another restoration

00:50or some more maintenance and repair work going into there, other boats could come

00:54in, it's possible you could have other boats would like come in over winter or

00:58a little bit of a residential mooring thing as they have in Fabersham. So it just

01:02creates a lot more sort of life and activity and colour for people to see so

01:07we sort of like get them attracted to come and visit the wharf and see what's

01:10going on. My granddad has a bit of a history in sailing barges, he was a bit of a

01:16salty sea dog, a bit of a hustler as described as, and he regularly

01:22used to bring his barge up to Milton and used to then go up to London and take

01:26different cargoes to different parts of the country. He had to go up to Yarmouth as

01:32well and there's a story, history of the family, I mean his name was George Eastland,

01:36there's history of the family that he sunk his barge in Yarmouth Harbour. The

01:41ironic thing for me was though that he was sailing in convoy with the Ray Bell

01:46and the Ray Bell helped my granddad to get some of his own personal belongings

01:51off the barge and made sure he got to safety. My granddad's barge was

01:56refloated and was repaired but for me it's created a circle for my family to

02:01know that I'm now helping out to restore the barge and actually rescued my

02:05granddad you know 50 or 60 years ago.