Shipwrecks, Sailors & Lost Souls

Episode 13: Goodwin Sands Radiogram This is an episode of the Goodwin Sands Radiogram, a podcast documentary series separate from the oral history project that this series has been so far. The Radiogram series was conceived by our producer Ben Horner back in 2016, and is still putting out occasional episodes as time allows.  Like the oral history project it looks to tell the stories of those who l...

Robert Peacock is a recreational diver of some 50 years' experience, 40 of which have been spent studying the Goodwin Sands and its many wrecks of various descriptions. His explorations over and around the Sands inspired him to attain a master's degree in maritime archaeology to better advance his research activities and understand the nature, history and context of the vessels and artefacts disco...

Episode 11: John Nichols (part 2) John Nichols is the chairman of Thanet Fisherman's Association, and Vice-Chairman of Kent and Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority. He has spent his life as a commercial fisherman working out of Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Folkestone, Scarborough, and Whitby. In this second part of the interview with John he discusses his work with Trinity House in the au...

John Nichols is the chairman of Thanet Fisherman's Association, and Vice-Chairman of Kent and Essex Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authority. He has spent his life as a commercial fisherman working out of Broadstairs, Ramsgate, Folkestone, Scarborough, and Whitby. Here he talks about his childhood, as he puts it, "making a nuisance of himself" at Ramsgate harbour helping the boatmen moored the...

David Skardon is a fisherman and boatman who grew up in Brewer Street in Deal in the 1940s and 50s, son of a fishmonger. As a child he would help the local boat owners wind their boats up to the beach on the winches for a penny and tuppence a week (a good wage given that Wagon Wheels were a ha'penny at the time). David talks about his childhood on Deal beach and how it forged for him a life on the...

David Brocklehurst MBE is the chairman, historian and a volunteer at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum in Hawkinge near Folkestone. He began working at the museum aged just ten years and, after a short stint in civil engineering early in his career, took over running the museum full time when founder Mike Llewellyn stepped down due to ill health. Twenty-six RAF squadrons were posted to RAF Hawking...

Ian Goodban began his career with the Royal Navy and then worked as a hydrographic surveyor before becoming a teacher, publican, and member of the UK Coastguard. He spends many hours scouring the beaches adjacent to the Goodwin Sands for interesting items and historical artefacts as well as fishing and cockling. His experience and trained eye have led him to recover some amazing artefacts such as...

David Garrod had a 29-year career at the Post Office, four years of which were spent as a community relations officer. This role involved working with local charities around the country offering help and resources to raise funds for worthy causes. Here he discusses working with the Goodwin Sands Potholing Club, a local charitable organisation which raises funds to support recreational activities f...

Dan Sinclair is a handyman in Deal in Kent and is also a volunteer and helmsman for Walmer RNLI lifeboat station having joined nearly 20 years ago at the age of 18. Walmer RNLI station operates two classes of lifeboat, a D-class IB1 and a B-class Atlantic 85 rigid inflatable, and is the only remaining station of the three historical sites along this stretch of coastline (Kingsdown and North Deal b...

Episode 4: Colin Varrall Colin Varrall works for South East Coast Ambulance Service and is an RNLI volunteer and local historian from Deal who has studied the many lifeboat stations along the south-east corner of Kent, many of which have now closed. The Walmer lifeboat station, of which Colin has been a member for 20 years, was established by the RNLI in 1856 after hundreds of years of local fishe...

Tom Brown was a fisherman who in 1979, alongside a local marine archaeological group, discovered the wreck of the Stirling Castle, a 70-gun Royal Navy vessel built in 1679 and wrecked on the Goodwin Sands in 1703. He was a fisherman who operated along the Kent coast with his trawler Chilandra. Here he describes discovering the wreck among a multitude of "fastenings" (seabed obstructions), the natu...

Captain Hugh Belasyse-Smith was a hovercraft pilot in the 1960s and 70s flying the Ramsgate to Calais route for what began as Hoverlloyd and eventually became Hoverspeed companies. He flew SR.N4 and SR.N6 hovercraft, the latter carrying 254 passengers and 30 cars and able to cross the English Channel in as little as 22 minutes under ideal conditions. Where conventional shipping would find the Good...

William Horwood is a novelist who grew up in Deal in the 1950s within sight of the Goodwin Sands. His mother was instrumental in saving the now-beloved "old town" area of Middle Street from developers who made applications to raze the historical buildings after the Second World War in the name of modernisation. Here he discusses his boyhood on the beach, befriending the local fishermen, class diff...