|
The River Tillingham flows through the English county of East Sussex. It meets the River Brede and the eastern River Rother near the town of Rye. A navigable sluice controlled the entrance to the river between 1786 and 1928, when it was replaced by a vertical lifting gate which was not navigable. The river provided water power to operate the bellows of an iron works at Beckley Furnace, used to make cannons for the Royal Navy between 1578 and 1770, when it became uneconomic, and a water mill which replaced it, until that burnt down in 1909. The lower reaches supported a thriving shipbuilding industry from the early nineteenth century onwards, and although on a smaller scale, was still doing so in 2000. ==History== The ancient course of the Tillingham was rather different from its present one, as the river discharged into a broad area defined by islands, tidal creeks and salt marshes during the Roman period, rather than the estuary of the River Rother. The thirteenth century was a time of turmoil, as from the 1240s there was a period of 60 years when weather conditions were extreme. Old Winchelsea, which was built on a huge mound of shingle to the east of the mouth, was threatened with flooding, and ultimately succumbed. Following extensive flooding, including the washing away of the church on 1271, a new town was established further to the west on a hill near Iham, just to the south of the Tillingham, in 1280. In 1287, a great storm deposited large amounts of shingle and mud on the port of Romney, and blocked up the mouth of the River Rother, which carved out a new route to the sea near Rye, where it joined the Tillingham and the River Brede. A major project of river engineering was carried out in 1596, when the course of the Rother was diverted around the northern edge of Rye to join the Tillingham. The scheme was expensive, and untimately was not a success, as the Rother reverted to its previous course to the east on Rye in 1610. Another attempt at engineering the mouths of the three rivers began in 1723, when an Act of Parliament was obtained to authorise the construction of a new channel from the Brede near Winchelsea to the sea. After great expense and 63 years work, the channel, called the New Harbour, was opened in July 1787, and the old outlet to the sea was closed. A wet autumn caused extensive flooding of the hinterland, and in November 1787, after just four months, the New Harbour was abandoned, and the old channel from Rye to the sea was reopened.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Smeaton's Harbour—an unfair name )〕 A navigable sluice was constructed across the Tillingham in 1786, just above Strand Quay. Its function was to prevent salt water flowing up the river, and to improve the scouring of the channel below it. At the same time, wharfs were constructed at Ferry Bridge, Leasam Farm, Marshall’s Farm and Marley Farm, the final one around above the sluice. It is not entirely clear how the lock was used, since maps from 1872 carry a note that the sluice was the highest point to which tides flowed, but maps from 1898 and 1907 state that tides flowed for a further beyond the sluice when the lock gates were opened.〔Ordnance Survey, 1:2500 maps, 1872, 1898 and 1907, available (here )〕 Navigation on most of the Tillingham ended in 1928, when the sluice was replaced by a vertical lifting gate. Shipbuilding had been carried out at Rye since at least 1223, although the location of the shipyards is not well defined. However, a number of firms are known to have owned and run shipyards on the lower reaches of the Tillingham and the Rock Channel. In the early nineteenth century, Harvey and Staffell were prominent, making cutters, schooners and sloops. By the middle of the century, James and Henry Hoad both built ships and operated them, and Hessel and Holmes were known for the quality of their ships. The Rother Iron Works built steam tugs and trawlers in the 1880s, while W E Clark built river barges in the 1890s. G and T Smith built ketches and smacks between 1890 and the start of the First World War. They built two steam drifters during the war, the only ships to be built at Rye during this period, and the same yard built pontoons which were used to detonate magnetic mines during the Second World War. They also built eight minesweepers, each long, of which two were despatched to Singapore. H J Phillips set up his yard in 1913, and the company survived two world wars and the depression of the 1930s, to continue building and repairing boats both for the fishing industry and the growing leisure industry. While on a smaller scale than in the past, there were still small shipyards operating in Rye in 2000. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「River Tillingham」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|