While I was swanning around having a truly memorable holiday in Hawaii, my lovely brother, Alan, was working his fingers to the bone, up to his elbows in grease and diesel fuel, refurbishing bits of the engine on Terra Nova, our old Seamaster Admiral cabin cruiser.
I’ve always loved the pleasure boats that carry passengers up and down the Thames and I wrote in a recent column that as a youngster in the 1950s I used to enjoy watching the steamers coming and going from the pier at Richmond as they carried passengers upstream to Hampton Court or downstream to Westminster.
I was really sad to see this photo of the ruins of the old Thornycroft yard on Platts Eyot going up in flames last week. It truly marked the end of a era in a very sad way as the blaze, which was fought by fire crews from all over the area, put the final nail in the coffin of what was once a thriving local business that built some of the finest fast launches in the world.
