#NavigatingtheOrwell 10

Theme

This display has given us the opportunity to make the most of several donations of equipment used either to survey or navigate the river. We have also included a fine model of the whole of the river made by our volunteer Ben which showcases the various landmarks and buoys that make the River Orwell what it is.

The shape of the River Orwell today is very different than it was 150 years ago.  The natural twists and turns of the navigable channel made it difficult to bring large vessels to and from Ipswich and several suggestions were made in the 19th century to straighten out the bends.

By 1872, some of the bends of the River Orwell had been dredged away but, even so, piloting ships was a skill requiring the use of compass courses and steering using landmarks ashore, such as Wherstead Church, the windmill at Stoke or farm buildings at Nacton. Today, red and green buoys mark the edges of the navigable channel: these and the use of radar, cameras and radio communications enable ships to safely navigate the river in all but the worst weather. The passage of vessels in the river is coordinated by the Orwell Navigation Service, based at the lock gates of Ipswich.

At the time of Samuel Pepys’ Harwich Approaches chart of 1686, the largest ships (100 tons) could only come up the Orwell as far as Downham Bridge, a Roman causeway across the river, built of septaria, where the Orwell Bridge lies today. Ipswich had to wait until the construction of the present Wet Dock, in 1843, for channel widening and deepening of the Orwell to allow larger ships to discharge at all states of the tide directly on to the quays. Dredgers are still seen today working the channels of the Orwell to keep them open for vessels from around the world bound for the Port of Ipswich.