HARBOUR VIEWS
Some scenes from the 1970s
By Celia Malfroot - Text by Andy Gilbert
The first two photos show the car ferry Villandry arriving, sometime after 1976, when she was equipped with a bow visor to make her a drive through vessel. The cargo ship in the first photo is one of Blue Star Line's regular visitors, but I can't tell you which one.
The third photo shows Villandry or Valencay, but this time it's prior to the conversion work. The cargo ship seen swinging belongs to Ellerman Lines, who also regularly used Newhaven. Curiously, it's carrying containers, and Newhaven had no container crane at that time!
The sand dredger seen coming through the bridge is either Chichester City or her sister ship Chichester Star. It's the old swing bridge and there's no sign of the new one being built, so this must be before 1973.
I don't recognise the sand dredger in the next two photos, but I'm sure we'll all recognise Meeching!
The final photo shows our stalwart bucket dredger Testside hard at work, as always. The pile of wood on the quayside matches that seen in the third photo, presumably taken at the same time.
Newhaven was certainly a busy place back then!