Old Photographs of Woodbridge & Melton
In 1926 Claude Whisstock purchased the marsh, between the Ferry Quay and the Tide Mill. Soon after, he built a boatyard there on stilts.
The earliest photograph of Whisstock's boat yard is shown on the right.
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A slightly later photograph, taken from the other end of the causeway, is shown on the right. The photograph shows the launching of the Orwell Viking in about 1926, It was a 40ft passenger launch which was used for pleasure trips on the River Orwell. To the right of it is a photograph of the craft after it had been fitted out. Her sister ship, the Deben Viking, was also built at the yard.
This photograph show the launching of the Orwell Viking in about 1926, It was a 40ft passenger launch which was used for pleasure trips on the River Orwell. To the right of it is a photograph of the craft after it had been fitted out. Her sister ship, the Deben Viking, was also built at the yard.
By the time Claude Whisstock business expanded his all the new buildings and storage areas had concrete foundations and the yard was as shown by the photograph on the right.
This boat was launched in 1971 and soon the boat sheds would get larger and more versatile.
Whisstock’s boatyard flourished and it became the best known yard in Suffolk. It produced a range of wooden, fibreglass and aluminium hulled craft and established a national reputation.
After the Whisstock family sold the yard in 1984 the business soon went into receivership. It managed to start up again only to close finally in 1990. After several attempts to redevelop the site planning permission it became clear that the boat shed was deteriorating rapidly.
Eventually planning permission was given for mixture of residential and commercial developments, a community boat shed and a community heritage building. The latter, which is now the home of Woodbridge Museum, is on the site of Whisstock’s first boat shed.
When Claude Whisstock walk out of the boatyard to start a new life in the USA the walls of his office will still decorated with photographs of the last series of boats that he had designed and built.
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