Wayne Pritchett on Rivers and Harbours

The Borough of Newport came into being, finishing rather in April 1974. In April 1974, we became Medina Borough Council. The Council changed.

The first thing they said was, “We’ve got to get rid of that antiquated crane, because we’re having trouble getting the proper Welsh steam coal.”

You had to have proper steam coal to drive that thing. Ordinary coal wouldn’t burn in the boiler, so they got rid of the crane, which was a bit of a sad thing really, ‘cos it was a bit of a tourist attraction, and they bought me a diesel train which was worn out by the time we bought it I think.

Well, I drove that for a while and it was a waste of money because we were always spending money on it , and then the Medina Borough Council decided to go modern and they bought me a Poclain Hydraulic Digger.

Of course it was a tracked machine and I had the job, which was always a bit precarious, of tracking that machine, off of the boat onto the edge of the Quay wall and then tracking it back onto the boat and of course where you had steel tracks, and a steel deck and there was no colons each side, you had to know what you were doing otherwise as soon as you dropped down on that barge, you’d go straight over the other side.

That didn’t happen and then Vic Sheath, the old Harbour Master, had quite a long spell of ill health, and there was only me and him here and the Medina Borough Council said, “Well, we need somebody of authority to run the Harbour when Mr Sheath’s there. Wayne is OK, he knows what he’s doing but he’s still officially the crane driver” so with that, at a Council meeting, they decided to make me a Deputy Harbour Master.

There was only two of us, so because they made me into the position of Deputy Harbour Master, it gave me some authority to uphold some of the statutes and the byelaws and everything else what goes with the job. So, this is what I done.