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Post by Deleted on Nov 26, 2016 14:21:18 GMT
I used to be up there once twice a week for a couple yrs ukwarrior i had a truck and we had the contract to move the Prout catamarans about. This was back late 80's early 90's so as you say i expect it has changed a lot since then but it the only place i have ever been that has escape routes on signposts I see, there is a pretty large boatyard on the Island still, my Grandfather did want to buy a boat, and was looking at them, but had a stroke before he got round to getting one. He is OK now, this was in around 2005, he just has some weakness now in his left side. I moved to the island with My Mum, Nan and Grandad in 1995, when I was 5. So we have been here for around 21 years now. I do remember even as a small kid things were a lot different to now on the island. Haha, that is quite strange! I do know there was a bad flood in the 50's though, and also about 2 years ago there was the worst storm I had ever seen. I was stuck in the local shopping centre with my Fiancee, Lightning was striking literally every few seconds, and right above us. Water was pouring in through the ceiling of the shopping centre, and outside manhole covers were hovering a few inches above the floor, with the water pressure pushing them up and flooding out. We waited as long as we could in the shopping centre, but had to leave eventually. At some points the water was mid way between my knee and my waist, mainly around the one way system which you probably remember. Luckily our home is on an incline, and we didn't flood. People across the road from us who were on the other side of the incline though got flooded. Walking home I will admit I was very scared, I knew if lightning struck with the amount of water we was standing in, it would not be good at all. I believe the routes were set up due to the gas terminal in case they caught fire and blew up. Yes there used to be quite a few smaller boat yards around the island, Prouts were a big factory and employer on the island for a good few yrs until they went tits up around 2000 i think.
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ukwarrior
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Post by ukwarrior on Nov 27, 2016 12:22:48 GMT
@broadblaster , that is a very good point.
I had completely forgotten about the massive gas terminal on the Island, I do know many years ago it was actually targeted by the IRA. From what I read though, which seems to go against what you would expect, due to the container being full it somehow did not explode. If it was only partially full, it would of went up with a pretty big bang.
This could of course just be rumour spread as fact though. I imagine if those containers ever did go up, it would take out quite a large portion of the island.
We still have the black occidental jetty, you may remember this? It was for the petro chem industry, but never was completely finished. People now fish off of it, and I have taken my bike right out to the end of the jetty. It extends quite far into the thames and is quite nice, got some nice photos while I was up there.
Did Prouts problems cause you any issues in regards to work, or was you OK with other potential clients?
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Post by Deleted on Nov 27, 2016 12:38:35 GMT
I had stopped working for them a couple of yr before luckily, i had all ways had other customers they were just a good one with nice people and were willing to pay good for the service that was supplied to them. I was quite surprised to hear they had gone TBH. By the time they had gone i had moved out of boat movement and got into band work (roadie) so it was no loss to me but still think about them from time to time. As said spent a lot of time up there as we moved them from The point (halcons) then when they moved upto the new factory (at the time) up by the car breakers (H.B.C) We also used to move the bare molds from searle and willams round to the factory for fitting out. Once the were completed we use to run them out to customers or the docks to be shipped off aboard.
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