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Ship Graveyard

2025 · 14 images

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From this series

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

Waterline

Ship Graveyard

I watched the reflections in the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal mirror two waterline stories. Upstream at Purton: wrecks deliberately beached in 1909, now rusted and reclaimed by vegetation. Downstream at Sharpness: yellow cranes and orange cargo ships still at work. The same water held both — abandonment and industry.