Voices of the Yard – Simon Clark

Simon was instrumental in the founding of Underfall Yard Trust in 1994, then known as the Underfall Yard Restoration Trust. The charity is is now responsible for the management of the historic boatyard, celebrating its 30th anniversary in 2024.

The first major project undertaken by the Trust was the restoration of the patent slipway, which had fallen into disrepair in the late 20th century. In these recordings, Simon shares his memories from the Trust’s early years…

Getting Started –

Searching for Greenheart –

This interview was recorded in 2015 as part of the Oral History Project, coordinated by Underfall Yard Trust. Our thanks to Simon and the volunteers who supported the project and “Voices of the Yard”.

TRANSCRIPT – GETTING STARTED

…at that time there was a lot of yacht building and boat repairing maintenance work going on around the docks in various derelict buildings and empty sites which were quickly being taken up for redevelopment, and that low cost or low-cost land was, and uh shelter, was disappearing at a rapid rate and I could see that, and I felt that Underfall provided a very good opportunity to provide workshop space and a centre for people who were into that kind of work because um being together I think well I know very well that it promotes spread of ideas, skills, um range of skills being assembled in the same area, and in fact a lot of people have taken workshop space at the Underfall Yard, grown, prospered, moved on to bigger things on different locations and uh it’s been very satisfying to see that happen, because, going back to my conversation with Peter, from that came the idea of forming a Trust as a basis for fundraising to do the works…

TRANSCRIPT – LOOKING FOR GREENHEART

…and then we needed timbers for the cradle and I wanted to get durable timbers that were a timber heavier than wood heavier than, that wouldn’t float in water, heavier than water, and um in the United Kingdom the most obvious timber for that is Greenheart which comes from South America and is imported to this country mostly for dock works, locks and quaysides and fenders in 12×12 boards. So, I started searching the country for — how much anecdote do you want here? — I started searching the country for Greenheart to build the slipway out of and um it was weeks on the phone; everywhere I tried it ‘oh yeah we did have some of that, sold it a little while ago sorry, yeah a lot of people are taking it to Ireland to cut up for floorboards, it makes very good floorboards’, I can’t think how, it blunts your saw in no time. I couldn’t get anywhere. I was getting quite frustrated by this time and slightly mystified until my wife and I went to a party in Lyme Regis, we were having lunch with a friend there, he said ‘oh there’s Steve, do you know Steve — can’t remember his name — don’t you know him?, ‘no’, ‘oh surprised, he’s the biggest architectural antiques dealer in Gloucestershire’, I said ‘oh does he do timber?’, ‘yeah yeah’. So I ran up for him and I said, introduced myself, ‘I’m looking for a quantity of Greenheart’ and he goes — started to explain to me that a little while before he’d signed a contract to supply Greenheart for a project in Somerset, they were prefabricating a church and a house to go to Chicago and they wanted Greenheart, and he’d signed on the line to deliver this Greenheart on time and he’d been scouring the country and borrowing everything he could, and uh – that’s a good story isn’t it. Anyway, I explained my problem to him and he said ‘I might be able to help you with that’, a few days, weeks later he rang up and said ‘I think I might have what you need’ said ‘12×12 Ekki [?] in 30 foot lengths’. Ekki is Australian? Not much used in this it’s got much same qualities as Greenheart, it’s a bit lighter, bit easier to work, still won’t float, very durable. French use it a lot where we use Greenheart for historic reasons. This stuff had apparently come out of a railway bridge in Manchester, I said ‘oh can we see a sample?’, he said ‘meet me at Gordano services at 1 o’clock’ so I rang the engineer and he and I went over to Gordano and went in the café and there was Steve, and had a coffee with him, and he said ‘come have a look’, and outside was this great big articulated truck stacked high with these timbers. He says ‘a sample’, they looked a bit – ‘what do you want for it?’, he said ‘£12 a cubic foot’, which was a very reasonable price, and there were some drill holes in it and bits of felt stuck to it otherwise it was in perfect condition – as you can see – and um so I bought a truckload of it, and the Wynn turned up, Wynn [unclear] – who’s still got a flourishing business here – and uh, wandered in and he said you know ‘I’m a boat builder, got any work here?’, I said ‘maybe’. I got him to put the door on the office and started chatting with him and uh as a result of that he got hired to build the cradle, and I got another carpenter to help him, and he made an impeccable job of building the cradle.