PS WINGFIELD CASTLE.

[Walter Snowdon]

Hi Folks. Today (Monday 27th March) I went to Hartlepool to see the Wingfield Castle refloated from the dry dock where her hull has been replated and repainted. She is sitting in the dock minus her paddle sponsons which are to be renovated and refitted when she arrives at her birth. Sadly she couldnt be towed out of the due to a strong wind across the dock gates, but will probably come out tommorrow when I cant be there to take any photographs!
She is undergoing a partial renovation which includes turning a disused lower deck into a classroom for school parties. Nice to see a local authority putting its money where its mouth is.
She will be reopend to the public (free access) in a few weeks time.
 Wingfield Castle is substantialy as she was built, with her engines intact and being turned over every week driven by a geard electric motor to stop them seizing up. Her boilers and boiler room is also accesible.
Regards to all, Walter.

[PJ]

Hi Walter:
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 Do you have any details as to the process and funding for  restoring her?  I believe she is owned by the City of Hartlepool  who are overseeing the restoration.  With major restoration  underway of Maid of the Loch and Wingfield Castle it only highlights the sorry  situation of "Medway Queen" and the obvious question why she has lagged behind  so badly.
 

  ----- Original Message -----
   From:    Walter Snowdon (preserved@paddleducks.co.uk)
   To: preserved@paddleducks.co.uk (preserved@paddleducks.co.uk)    
   Sent: Monday, March 27, 2006 5:06  PM
   Subject: PS WINGFIELD CASTLE.
   

   
Hi Folks. Today (Monday 27th March) I went to    Hartlepool to see the Wingfield Castle refloated from the dry dock where her    hull has been replated and repainted. She is sitting in the dock minus her    paddle sponsons which are to be renovated and refitted when she arrives at her    birth. Sadly she couldnt be towed out of the due to a strong wind across the    dock gates, but will probably come out tommorrow when I cant be there to take    any photographs!
She is undergoing a partial renovation which includes    turning a disused lower deck into a classroom for school parties. Nice to see    a local authority putting its money where its mouth is.
She will be reopend    to the public (free access) in a few weeks time.
Wingfield Castle is    substantialy as she was built, with her engines intact and being turned over    every week driven by a geard electric motor to stop them seizing up. Her    boilers and boiler room is also accesible.
Regards to all,    Walter.



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[Walter Snowdon]

Hi Paul. The preservation of this paddler is enirely down to the local authority- no external funding. She was built in Hartlepool in the early thirties and when she came up for scrapping the Museum service bought her and brought her to Hartlepool. This was at the time Hartlepool was rebuilding HMS WARRIOR and it was felt that as there was such a nucleus of experienced shipwrights that the  on going process of preservation would benefit the town. (Hartlepool is just a small town- not a city). Since then They have also rebuilt  HMS TRINCOMALEE, A Napoleonic Wars frigate into a perfect fully rigged floatng piece of hostory with a Historic dockyard theme village with its own drydock for ship restoration and gunsmiths, naval tailorsshops etc.  and a vast light and sound theme whereby you pass threough the length of Hms victory in action complete with ships surgeon, gunfire and all the noise and smoke of battle. VERY spectacular. I often criticise Hartlepool but really for its size It has given us WARRIOR, TRICOMALEE, WINGFIELD CASTLE, and partly rebuilt the HMS M33 first war Monitor which is now in Portsmouth for final addition of armament etc. Cheers for now, Walter.

[PJ]

Walter..that's an impressive restoration  record...and thanks so much for bringing us up to date on this story.   Shows you what can be done when an entire community gets behind ship  preservation. Do you know how they finance these projects and if they  are done with any Government subsidies or Heritage Lottery  funding? 
 

  ----- Original Message -----
   From:    Walter Snowdon (preserved@paddleducks.co.uk)
   To: preserved@paddleducks.co.uk (preserved@paddleducks.co.uk)    
   Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 12:29    AM
   Subject: RE: PS WINGFIELD CASTLE.
   

   
Hi Paul. The preservation of this paddler is enirely    down to the local authority- no external funding. She was built in Hartlepool    in the early thirties and when she came up for scrapping the Museum service    bought her and brought her to Hartlepool. This was at the time Hartlepool was    rebuilding HMS WARRIOR and it was felt that as there was such a nucleus of    experienced shipwrights that the on going process of preservation would    benefit the town. (Hartlepool is just a small town- not a city). Since then    They have also rebuilt HMS TRINCOMALEE, A Napoleonic Wars frigate into a    perfect fully rigged floatng piece of hostory with a Historic dockyard theme    village with its own drydock for ship restoration and gunsmiths, naval    tailorsshops etc. and a vast light and sound theme whereby you pass threough    the length of Hms victory in action complete with ships surgeon, gunfire and    all the noise and smoke of battle. VERY spectacular. I often criticise    Hartlepool but really for its size It has given us WARRIOR, TRICOMALEE,    WINGFIELD CASTLE, and partly rebuilt the HMS M33 first war Monitor which is    now in Portsmouth for final addition of armament etc. Cheers for now,    Walter.



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[Walter Snowdon]

Hi PJ and all. The maintainance and restoration of PS Wingfield Castle comes entirely out of the local authority purse as she is owned by Haretlepool Museum service. There is no external funding or grants involved.
 The HMS Warrior and HME Trincomalee are both owned by the UK Maritime Trust who funded the restoration work (this was very extensive on both ships). Hartlepool provided the dock facilities and the skills and manpower. From the start, iy was known that Warrior would be going to Prtsmouth to join theVictory, But still the workforce did what is certainly the finest restoration of a hulk ever achieved. We are justly proud of the results. ( I have a personal claim as my blood is on her deck!). At the beginning of the rstoration when the concrete overlay on her decks had to be removed (She had been used as a floatng jetty) a lot of the labour with hammers and bolster chissels was done by  volunteers. Whils tswinging a club hammer saomeone shouted for me. I looked up, missed the bolster and hit my knuckles, hence my claim to shedding blood on the Warriors deck!.
HMS TRINCOMALLEE (sailing frigate) was a different matter. She was completely rebuilt at Hartlepool on condition that she stayed there on exhibiyion when completed. She is now looking exactly as she did in 1815, afloat in the harbour where incidentaly she served as guard ship over 150 years ago!.  Cheers for now, Walter. (Sorry this was so long, but we are very proud of our shipbuilding in the Northeast).