Purton

We went with the camera club today to see the Purton Wrecks or Hulks. They are a number of abandoned and deliberately wrecked old ships along the bank of the River Severn at Purton Gloucestershire. They were old derelict ships no longer needed or seaworthy . The idea was that they would provide protection for the increasingly fragile and eroded river bank to stop the sea from breaching the wall to the parallel Sharpness canal which was an important waterway taking goods up to Gloucester Docks.
Most of them were left there during the 1950s and they are marked with little plaques saying where they were built, what their original purpose was and when they were beached.
Nature is slowly taking over most of the wrecks and there are grasses and wild flowers growing over them.
There was a bridge over the Severn at this point but it was hit by two tankers and demolished. One of them still lies here too, and there is a commemorative plaque.
Main is the rudder of one of the ships, extra is reflections from a river boat farther along at Sharpness.