Gull mast move is approved (From Thurrock Gazette)
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Gull mast move is approved
7:30am Saturday 8th September 2012 in News
THE historic Gull lightship mast is coming home to Thurrock Yacht Club.
Thurrock Council’s planning committee agreed to the new location in Grays Town Wharf at its committee meeting last Thursday.
Conservative Little Thurrock Blackshots councillor, Joy Redsell, started the campaign to save the mast when she was cabinet member for leisure and culture in 2009.
She told the meeting: “This has been an ongoing project for me for the last four years and to see it come to fruition will be amazing.
“I would like to thank everybody involved, and there are many, for their help and funding.
“I hope the varied history of the mast will bring many people to see it on the river.”
The Gull lightship dated back to around 1860.
Its captain was killed on March 18, 1929, when the boat was rammed and sunk near the City of York. Thurrock Yacht Club brought it for £750 in 1947 and used it as its base until 1971.
But when the club found a permanent home, the ship lay unprotected on the banks of the River Thames, off Grays, soon falling into disrepair.
In October last year the ship was taken apart and sold off for scrap.
But now its mast will find a new home within the club’s grounds, and solar panels will be installed on it, costing £48,000.
