Watchet Boat Museum facts for kids
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| Location | Watchet, Somerset |
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The Watchet Boat Museum is a small and interesting museum located in Watchet, a town in Somerset, England. It's a great place to learn about the history of boats and fishing in the local area.
The museum is inside a special building. It used to be a railway goods shed, built way back in 1862 during the Victorian era. This old building was part of the Watchet railway station. Today, the station is part of the West Somerset Railway, which is a "heritage railway." This means it's an old railway line kept working for fun and history, not for regular travel.
Inside the museum, you can see many different types of boats that were used locally. There are also old tools, photographs, and maps. You'll find fishing nets and other items that show how people used to fish. The museum also has displays about knot-tying and how "withy" (willow branches) were used. A really unique exhibit is a "mudhorse." This is a wooden sledge that people used to push across muddy areas to collect fish from nets.
Discovering Local Boats
The Watchet Boat Museum is famous for its collection of "Flatner" boats. These boats were very common in Bridgwater Bay and nearby coastal areas. Flatners are small boats that are pointed at both ends. They don't have a keel, which is a fin on the bottom of a boat that helps it steer. This design made them perfect for shallow waters.
Withy and Turf Boats
Two types of Flatner boats were called Withy Boats and Turf Boats. These boats were usually between 16 feet (4.9 meters) and 20 feet (6.1 meters) long. People used them on the Somerset Levels, which are very flat, low-lying areas. They carried things like peat (a type of soil used for fuel) and withies (willow branches) to market.
These boats were built from elm wood or using a method called "clinker" building. In clinker building, the wooden planks overlap each other like roof tiles. People would pull these boats along the banks of the drainage ditches on the Levels.
River Boats
River boats were built in a similar way to Withy and Turf Boats. However, their bottoms were curved. This curved shape made it easier to launch them down the muddy banks of rivers. They were used on rivers like the River Parrett for catching fish, especially salmon.
Bay and Gore Boats
Some slightly larger boats were known as Bay or Gore Boats. These boats were sometimes fitted with a simple sail, like a "sprit" or "jib-headed" sail. They also had a long rudder and a "dagger board." A dagger board is a removable fin that helps with steering and stability. These boats were used for fishing in inland waters.
Gallery
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The Boat Museum and Station
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Flatner Turf Boat
