* Fleetwood Boat Graveyard

OK … so I’ve had all this week off work and one of my goals this week was to find the famous Boat Graveyard at Fleetwood… I’ve been looking at the place on Google Maps for some time , trying to work out how to get there …  I’d thought about following the banks of the River Wyre down from Skippool Creek, or climbing through the Docks … but in fact, the solution is much easier …. simply follow the main road from Freeport towards the docks and take the docks turning into a new housing estate… there you’ll find a small gateway that will take you down to the river bank…

If you’re still not sure where I mean, just paste the following into Google Maps and you’ll find where I parked… it’s just a short walk from there down the footpath …. 53.912745, -3.012581

The boats in the graveyard are mostly all Fleetwood Trawlers left over from the Cod Wars of the 1970’s when the ships owners were paid to scrap them by the government…

They’ve laid here for about 40 years, undisturbed apart from the odd visitor ….

There are 5 main wrecks in the group, although you can only see four in the photo’s .. one lies slightly further beyond… There is a second smaller group of wooden boats that you can see in the last couple of pictures which I couldn’t get too as the ground was far too soft but I’ll try to get back there in the summer time to photograph those … there are also several other much smaller craft that are sinking into the mud in the smaller, muddy creeks which form a maze around this part of the river….

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UPDATE 24/05/2015

OK … It’s a Bank Holiday weekend and I found myself in Fleetwood again for some reason … anyhow, it turns out that there is another group of boat wrecks at an old dock that I wasn’t previously aware of … There’s a tiny road next to the entrance at Freeport called Bridge Road…

If you copy and paste the following into Google Maps, you’ll find it’s location:  53.920075, -3.013353

If you walk along it, you’ll find some of the fishing boats that are still working out of Fleetwood, and at the end of the road there is a fence … the pathway is a public footpath and there is a gap in the fence that you can use to walk all the way along the old dock, right back to the old ferry port area…. There are several small wrecks there….. I took a couple of quick snaps….

Jasmine C … a small fishing boat … sadly now just a ruin of its former self … left to the mercy of the river 😦

Update: 11/07/2016

Hi all … I’ve been contacted by Paul, who sent me this message:

“The little red boat jasmine c has been saved and now afloat it was my old boat and the one is ex fishing boat Glen Carradale only been there for about 3yr”

So it would seem that jasmine c has been saved … awesome news! Thanks for sharing that Paul

🙂

The next one looks like a small fibreglass cabin cruiser … it’s obviously been stranded there for a long time … it looks like the mud banks are trying to reclaim it slowly …. Here’s its location .. put this into Google Maps … 53.920426, -3.007803

The following boat is about the size of a small trawler and you can find it’s exact location by copying the following into Google Maps …. 53.920338, -3.009248

 

A view along the old harbour wall, looking towards Knott End … amazingly, most of the old ironwork is still there 🙂

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Thanks for looking 🙂