Just Off the Swale – The story of the barge building village of Conyer

Conyer has a history, a vibrant past when Victorian industry dominated the locality and the ever-present Thames sailing barge, which was built there, came and went regularly carrying the cargoes brought to the many quays and wharves by the tramways that converged on the creek from the local brickfields and cement works.

This book tells of the early history of the area, the evolution of its industries and their ultimate decline and the barge building. It also explores the personalities who played their part and touched the lifestyle of this now tranquil, remote corner of the Kent countryside.

Satin writes of the characters who lived there, both afloat and ashore, barge captains, fishermen, shipwrights, brick and cement workers, even of ‘Lord Haw-Haw’ who had his motor cruiser moored and maintained at Conyer. Appendices record the launching of all the barges from John Bird’s and later Alfred Marconi White’s yards, as well as the racing successes of their output.

Don Sattin is a local resident who for many years was a shipwright at the bargeyard, his recollections bring to life this once vibrant centre of Victorian enterprise in this book. His life has been concentrated around the rich farm lands and the tidal waterways which lie off the Kentish Swale. In time he came to know the people who worked in the barge yard, the brickfields and on the land, the skippers and their mates who brought the barges up the creek, the farmers, the villagers, the yachtsmen and the visitors.

Conyer is an appealing waterside community, its creekway provides moorings for yachts and small cruisers, its Street is flanked by terraces of new, white weatherboarded cottages which overlook the creek, and in the Dock, where barges once used to load cement, houseboats and housebarges lie along landscaped gardens. In the Brickfields Conyer bricks are now again made by hand, and on the surrounds of the village are grasslands reclaimed from former marsh.

Just Off the Swale – The story of the barge building village of Conyer
By Don Sattin
Published by Chaffcutter Books
ISBN 0 9532422 77
Paperback, 144 pages
Price £12.50