The loss of the Lagik at Sutton Bridge on the River Nene

Photo: Maritime and Coastguard Agency

As the first one has proved surprisingly popular, here's a second post about a cargo vessel being grounded in the River Nene.

Back in 2000, reports Lincolnshire Live, a ship named the Lagik, carrying a cargo of 2250 tonnes of steel products, attempted to berth at Sutton Bridge, a few miles downstream of Wisbech, with severe consequences:

The 92 metre-long German-owned cargo ship entered the swinging basin at the port to be swung before it could berth, but within seconds it began to ground following "inappropriate manoeuvring."

It's bow ... grounded at a distance from the opposite bank equal to the ship's length and once a tide caught the ship's stern ... it was effectively 'wedged' in position.

Later that same day (December 13, 2000), a combination of the weight of its cargo and the falling tide caused the ship to break its back and settle further into the river with each tide.

The Lagik blocked the River Nene ... and this led to closure of Wisbech port in Cambridgeshire for 44 days.

The Lagik could not be recovered whole, and was cut in three pieces where she lay by salvage experts. The only good news is that they managed to prevent serious pollution of the river.

A swinging basin appears to be a harbour's equivalent of a winding hole on the canals and allows a ship to be turned in little more than its own length.

I captured the mouth of this swinging basin on my visit to Sutton Bridge in 2009 - you can see it in the photograph below.

If you think the Nene is a narrow river to have inland ports like Sutton Bridge and Wisbech, you may be surprised to know that ships used to dock even further upstream.

The Victoria County History for Cambridgeshire and the Isle of Ely says:

As recently as 1938 a sea-going vessel, the Constance H, sailed as far as Peterborough, clearing Guyhirn Bridge by 1 inch. In 1951 some sea-going barges, laden with corn, sailed from the Thames to Peterborough. 

Jonathan Meades at Sutton Bridge

Jonathan Meades is one of this blog's heroes.

And I have often mentioned the day in 2009 when England regained the Ashes because I kept to my bargain with God and did not look at the score as I walked from Sutton Bridge to the ornamental lighthouses at the mouth of the Nene.

When I reached them I found we had taken three more wickets, two of them by run outs. Surely evidence of divine intervention?

Put these two factors together and you get this clip from Meades' film Double Dutch which puts him into the landscape I walked through that day.

You also get one of his best visual jokes.

If you want to watch the whole thing, go worship at The Meades Shrine.

Sutton Bridge and the relics of a Lincolnshire potato railway

I have mentioned several times that I was in Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire on the day that England won back the Ashes in 2009.

Here are some of the photographs I took on that visit. They show Sutton Bridge, the Nene and the ornamental lighthouses at its mouth. The blue plaque on one of the lighthouses records that Sir Peter Scott used to live there.

I looked through them because of a book I bought years ago largely for its title: The Lincolnshire Potato Railways.

It turns out there was a little narrow gauge system at Lighthouse Farm, which is beside the Nene below Sutton Bridge. And the book has photographs of old rails (which came from the Western Front after World War I) being used for fencing there.

And I think I photographed some of those rails, quite unwittingly, in the photograph above.

The Crosskeys Bridge at Sutton Bridge, Lincolnshire

I have had an affection for the Crosskeys Bridge at Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire ever since we won the Ashes there in 2009.

This is a good video of it in operation with an equally  good backing track - Human by Rag'n'Bone Man.

Advent Calendar 13: A sign by the Nene at Sutton Bridge

Sutton Bridge, where England regained the Ashes in 2009.

The Bridge Hotel, Sutton Bridge, has been demolished

For some unaccountable reason I had long had the ambition to visit Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire. I finally got there in 2009 on the day England won back the Ashes.

The most impressive structure in the town was the Crosskeys Bridge, but after that it was the Bridge Hotel.

It was standing empty in 2009 and today I came across a Spalding Guardian report suggesting it was demolished this summer:

Demolition work has begun on a former Sutton Bridge hotel. 
Workmen were spotted on the Bridge Hotel site on Sunday clearing copper piping from inside and they were on the roof on Wednesday removing the lead tiles.


The pictures here were taken on that day in 2009. The one below shows the rear of the Bridge Hotel from the far side of the Nene.

Crosskeys Bridge, Sutton Bridge

In the summer of 2009 I visited Sutton Bridge in Lincolnshire photographing, amongst other things, the Crosskeys Bridge across the Nene.

This swing bridge used to carry the road and the railway, but is has been road only since the Midland & Great Northern line was closed in 1965.

This video shows the bridge open to allow a large vessel to pass upstream to Wisbech and then being closed afterwards.

Crosskeys Bridge, Sutton Bridge

Another shot of the swing bridge over the Nene at Sutton Bridge. As ever, click to expand it.

How we won the Ashes in Sutton Bridge

I left King's Lynn yesterday morning on the bus for Sutton Bridge. I got a shock when I arrived as the town's main hotel, which was apparently still thriving according to numerous websites, and found it was boarded up. I was later told that it had been like that for a year or so.

This turned out not to be a problem as I was able to find accommodation just down the road. The cricket was on in the bar and I was pleased to see that we had already got both Australian openers out.

I headed off to photograph the Crosskeys bridge. This structure, the third bridge on the site, was opened in 1897 and originally carried both road and rail traffic - the railway (the old Midland and Great Northern line, which took generations of holidaymakers to the Norfolk coast) on what is now the westbound carriageway and the road on the eastbound side. The railway closed in 1965 and the bridge is now road only, carrying the modern A17.

The bridge is interesting because it a swing bridge crowned with a control cabin and is still opened several times a week to allow large ships to make their way up the River Nene to Wisbech. It used to open more often, but a port has been developed below the bridge at Sutton Bridge which has taken much of Wisbech's trade.

According to Wikipedia the Crosskeys Bridge was used as a location in the film of Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass. I shall have to see it now.

Having examined the bridge I set off down the banks of the Nene for the Wash. I had read that about three miles downstream, at what was then the mouth of the river (more land has been reclaimed since then - indeed, you never do quite reach the sea when you try anywhere around the Wash), two ornamental lighthouses had been erected in 1831.

They never served as lighthouses but were used as customs posts. The lighthouse on the east bank was the home of Sir Peter Scott in the 1930s. When I reached them they turned out to resemble nothing so much as a pair of salt and pepper shakers.

The path carries on around the Wash - indeed the Peter Scott Walk will take you down the Great Ouse estuary too and back to the ferry at West Lynn.


I had made a pact with God that I would not look at the test score until I had reached the lighthouses. When I did, I found England had taken five Australian wickets and was reasonably pleased.

After I had walked back into Sutton Bridge I was less pleased to find that there were still only five wickets down. So I bought a beer and sat down to watch, whereupon the last five wickets fell in less than an hour.

Not a bad day, all told.