The Bargeman - High Street - Sittingbourne, Kent
Posted by: 
SMacB
N 51° 20.405 E 000° 44.150
31U E 342297 N 5690078
Bronze sculpture of a man at the steering wheel, with a dog next to him, in Sittingbourne High Street.
Waymark Code: WMQ6D0
Location: South East England, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/29/2015
Views: 2
Bronze sculpture of a man at the steering wheel, with a dog next to him. Situated on the high street, opposite the junction with Central Avenue.
A plaque at the base reads:
"THE BARGEMAN"
By Jill Tweed f.r.b.s.
Commissioned by Swale Borough Council
following an exhibition on the completion
of the town centre improvements.
This sculpture was unveiled in
29th June 1996
by the Mayor of Swale
Councillor Ernest J. Madgwick
Jill Tweed is a British sculptor from Oxfordshire (
visit link)
"Barges were needed to move many other raw materials and finished goods into the Thames and to London and beyond. Sittingbourne was ideally suited for this purpose and a successful barge-building industry developed at Milton Creek.
Sittingbourne developed into a port during the industrial revolution, from which Kentish produce was transported to the London markets. During this era over 500 types of barges are believed to have been built, centred around Conyer, a Roman hamlet of the village of Teynham, found at the head of a small creek between Sittingbourne and Faversham.
After World War II, these activities began to fall into a decline, so that only the Burley yard continued with the repair of barges until about 1965. Charles Burley (was a brick maker and barge owner). He occupied the yard in Crown Quay Lane. Now occupied by a builders' merchant. This lack of barge repairs led the creek to become silted and derelict. In 1968, the site was owned by Bourncrete Limited, manufacturers of concrete products.
The yard was then leased to the newly established Dolphin Sailing Barge Museum Trust. The inlet alongside the Museum usually contains at least one vessel brought to the yard for restoration, including the famous sailing barge Cambria.
The towns links with water transport survive today, through a bronze statue of a bargeman in the town centre."
SOURCE - (
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Additional reading - (
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