Tag Archives: To do in Suffolk

On Saturday 13th May members of the Nancy Blackett Trust asked me to open the Arthur Ransome Jamboree 2017 at Pin Mill in Suffolk.

Although Ransome is remembered for his ‘Swallows and Amazons’ books set in the Lake District he moved to the east coast of Suffolk in 1935 where he set a number of his books in the series. 2017 makes the 80th anniversary of the publication of his inspirational sailing book ‘We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea’.

You can actually go aboard the Goblin, since she was modelled on his own favourite little yacht, the Nancy Blackett. I jined her at The Royal Harwich Yacht Club where she was moored alongside Peter Duck one of his other much-loved yachts, named after theof the building of his boat Selina King at King’s boatyard nearby. It’s the first public exhibition of these pictures ever seen and will continue to be on show at the Pin Mill Studio.

The Pin Mill Studio also hosted an exhibition of photographs from the restoration of Melissa, a barge restored to her former glory by Webb’s boatyard, with additional archive images of Pin Mill from the early 1900s.

The Vintage Mobile Cinema, as seen on BBC Television’s Reel History of Britain, screened unique archive film of Pin Mill and Shotley.

~The Nancy Blackett in her 85th year~

A Pin Mill ‘Wooden Boat’ race was held along the stream leading down to the river and you could take a ride on the Victorian swing boats on the Common as in years