Touchstone returns to Hermitage, fresh from drydock.
Gates open 11am to 4pm on both Saturday and Sunday
Motor tug Touchstone will be coming and will to be open to visitors, there will be a pop-up cafe in the pier house and of course the resident live-aboard boats to view close up, mainly Dutch and English river barges, with one Norwegian coastal vessel (Hans) and all in navigable condition with working engines and many with sailing rigs too. Come and find out from those who live here what it is like to live on board a barge on the river.
Tug Touchstone was built in 1962 on the Thames in Charlton, and its home berth is now at Chatham Historic dockyard. Duting its working life it was owned by Corys Tank Lighterage Company and worked the Thames and the Medway until 1994. Length 21m x beam 5.7m x draft 2.3m. Engine Blackstone 517hp, gross tonnage 68. A great piece of Thames river history, in full working order.
PRIZE DRAW – a patchwork quilt can be won in a prize draw as part of fundraising for Wapping Welcomes, currently supporting Ukrainian refugees. Floating Quilters of Hermitage Prize Draw – a Community crowdfunding project in London by jesslerche (crowdfunder.co.uk)
