OCTOBER 2025 · WATERLINE
Ship Graveyard
Gloucestershire, England
In 1909 the canal authorities began beaching old barges on the bank of the Severn at Purton, deliberately, to prevent erosion. They kept doing it until 1965. There are around eighty hulls now, in various states of return to the ground. This is not a dramatic intervention in the landscape. It is a quiet one. The hulls are lower each decade.
The wooden barges have opened outward. Splayed timber ribs, vegetation growing through the gaps, the planking going grey-silver over a century of weather. Close in, the wood is almost geological — deeply grained, bolt heads rusted to the colour of the surrounding timber. Nothing has been maintained because maintenance was never the point. The point was to be there.
The concrete barge hull is a different object. It sits tilted on the Severn bank, still recognisably a vessel, rusted fittings visible, overgrown grass at the edges. Concrete barges were built during the First World War when steel was scarce. This one beached here and hasn't moved.
The rusted yellow cranes at Sharpness, clustered and latticed, make the same visual argument as the wreck ribs at Purton.
Purton Ship Graveyard — October 2025
One hull has gone almost entirely. Dense ivy and scrub have swallowed it. The shape underneath is implied rather than visible.
A HIGH VOLTAGE warning sign on the canal bank, almost completely engulfed by flowering ivy. Someone put it there and the ivy proceeded without consultation.
Two miles downstream at Sharpness, the dock is still operational. Yellow cranes and orange machinery in the yard, a concrete grain silo rising behind corrugated fencing. The MV Wanheim moored alongside. Scrap metal on the quay. The canal that holds the Purton wrecks also feeds this dock; the same water, the same surface, and the canal mirroring the early autumn trees with absolute precision mid-route. The reflection sits between the two ends of the story.
The rusted yellow cranes at Sharpness, clustered and latticed, make the same visual argument as the wreck ribs at Purton. Different speeds of the same process.
Rotting wooden barge planks with rusted metal bolts, a row of wrecks receding in riverside grass, Purton Ship Graveyard
Tilted concrete barge hull beached on the Severn bank with rusted fittings, overgrown grass and grey sky, Purton
Decayed wooden barge hull collapsed open with splayed timber ribs, vegetation growing through, Purton Ship Graveyard
Industrial compound at Sharpness Dock, tall concrete grain silo, a ship in the dock and discarded equipment in the foreground
Yellow 'HIGH VOLTAGE' warning sign almost completely engulfed by dense flowering ivy, Sharpness canal bank
Close detail of deeply weathered silver-grey wooden ship planking with a large rusted bolt head, Purton Ship Graveyard
Early autumn trees with their reflections perfectly mirrored in the dark still water of the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal
Large weathered concrete grain silo rising behind a corrugated fence and wire mesh at Sharpness Dock, Gloucestershire
Cargo ships MV Wanheim and a second vessel moored at Sharpness Dock, Victorian warehouse behind and dock reflections
Dock crane and orange cargo ship at Sharpness Dock, scrap metal piled on the quay and dock sheds alongside
Wide view of Sharpness Dock with tower crane, concrete grain silo, bulk cargo sheds and scrap metal on the quay
Dense cluster of rusted yellow dock cranes and lattice structures, cargo ships visible behind, Sharpness Dock
Rusted yellow dock cranes and orange machinery in a dock yard, grain silo and red cargo ship behind, Sharpness
Abandoned barge hull almost completely swallowed by ivy and scrub vegetation, Purton Ship Graveyard, Gloucestershire