Purton Hulks

[2] A riverbank collapse in 1909 led to concerns that the barrier between the river and the Gloucester and Sharpness Canal would be breached.

Old vessels were run aground and soon filled with water and silt to create a tidal erosion barrier.

Purton lies on the southern bank of the River Severn about 1⁄2 mile (1 km) north of the port of Sharpness.

[8] The flood plain of the Severn hereabouts is very flat and so the elevation of the canal does not require any rise over its length.

In 1909, following a collapse in the bank of the river,[12] the canal company's chief engineer Mr A. J. Cullis called for old vessels to be run aground along the bank of the Severn, near Purton, to create a makeshift tidal erosion barrier to reinforce the narrow strip of land between the river and canal.

[13] In 1999, a local maritime historian, Paul Barnett, commenced a privately funded research project which saw the site's 86 vessels recorded and recognised as the largest ships' graveyard in mainland Britain.

[16] The Nautical Archaeology Society investigated the site in 2008 as part of its Diving into History Project,[17][18] and carried out laser scanning of the remains.

These were a patent innovation from 1839 by Jonathan Fell of Workington, Cumberland,[26] and were part of the development of the iron and wood composite hull.

Ships before this had been built from oak, where the strong curved brackets needed to join the deck into the hull side frames could be found as naturally grown 'knees' from the angles between major branches and the trunk.

In the post-Nelsonic era there was a general shortage of shipbuilding timber, particularly oak, one of the few species with strong enough branch attachments to provide knees.