Dredgers

The dredger had been sucking up shingle from the sea bed a mile or two off the coast, near Newhaven. The cargo is off-loaded at Newhaven's South Quay, where it is graded and loaded onto railway wagons and transported to the London area, or into lorries for use more locally, as aggregate in the production of concrete.

This photo was uploaded to Flickr and not Newhaven Squawka. I don't mind them including this in their site, but they should make it clear where they got it from and it would be nice to be asked! The Flickr site does clearly show 'All Rights Reserved' A quick trip from Seaford to Southease - quick but multi-facetted! Having seen Arco Dee and the pilot boat entering Newhaven Harbour, from the train to Southease, I thought I would stop off, at Newhaven Town, on the way home and take her portrait.

A quick trip from Seaford to Southease - quick but multi-facetted! A grab lifts the shingle,dredged from the English Channel outside Newhaven, drops it in a hopper. It then runs up the red-framed conveyor belt and onto the quayside.

Seaford's beach has only one large breakwater, at its eastern end. The shingle beach has to be reprofiled each year, mainly by bucket loaders, large tipper trucks and bull-dozers. On this occasion a dredger was employed to suck shingle from the seabed and pump it out on to the beach.

For a much better view of this vessel please see www.flickr.com/photos/phil-seaford/5067817593/in/set-7215...

This vessel went in and out of the harbour entrance and back in. It could have been waiting for high-tide to pass through the swing bridge and berth, or it might have been dredging although it seems a bit late in the day and it kept on the move. From where I was it didn't look as though any dredging gear was deployed, but I was on the beach at Seaford, a fair old distance away.

I have assumed that this craft is for clearing silt and other debris from the canals around London. The Canal & River Trust's logo can be seen in the centre of the boat.