Gloucestershire Tourist Guide - Articles
New Attraction in the Gloucester Docks
Quite gently SND No 4 rests on the blocks in the large dry-dock at Gloucester Shipyard. Work will now commence in restoring this last remaining steam bucket dredger in Europe back to her original glory thanks to a generous Heritage Lottery Grant.
A grant of £43,300 was recently awarded to Friends of Gloucester Waterways Museum by the Heritage Lottery Fund to assist with financing repair to the steam boiler, to the hull and then embarking on an educational programme when the dredger returns to the Museum.
SND No 4 was built by the De Klop shipyard at Sliedrecht in Holland in 1925 to dredge both Gloucester and Sharpness Docks and worked up until 1982 when she was replaced by a new Diesel Electric dredger called THOMAS FLETCHER.
Chris Witts, chairman of the Friends of Gloucester Waterways Museum, said, “We had some concerns about moving the dredger across the dock and into the dry-dock due to high winds and driving rain. Fortunately all went well and soon SND No 4 was behind the closed gates of the dry-dock dropping gently down onto the blocks.”
A grant of £43,300 was recently awarded to Friends of Gloucester Waterways Museum by the Heritage Lottery Fund to assist with financing repair to the steam boiler, to the hull and then embarking on an educational programme when the dredger returns to the Museum.
SND No 4 was built by the De Klop shipyard at Sliedrecht in Holland in 1925 to dredge both Gloucester and Sharpness Docks and worked up until 1982 when she was replaced by a new Diesel Electric dredger called THOMAS FLETCHER.
Chris Witts, chairman of the Friends of Gloucester Waterways Museum, said, “We had some concerns about moving the dredger across the dock and into the dry-dock due to high winds and driving rain. Fortunately all went well and soon SND No 4 was behind the closed gates of the dry-dock dropping gently down onto the blocks.”
