2012
SO6804 : Ships Graveyard, Purton, Gloucestershire
taken 12 years ago, near to Purton, Gloucestershire, England
Ships Graveyard, Purton, Gloucestershire
This is a view south-west along the eastern bank of the Severn estuary. Visible in the distance is one of about thirty hulks deliberately placed here at intervals in the 20th century starting in late 1909. The one in view, seen closer here
SO6804 : Hulk, Ships Graveyard, Purton, Gloucestershire (6) is one of several concrete barges built in Barrow in Furness in 1941 and beached here in 1965. These hulks were deliberately beached to protect the adjacent Gloucester and Sharpness Canal from the threat to it posed by erosion of the river bank. Erosion episodes occurred in 1909 and 1951. The presence of the hulks interferes with the flow of the tide and causes the deposition of silt thus keeping the river at bay.
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