"WOMPY" Speedboat rides

Asha

Asha

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Asha
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Following the interest from many people on the old films/negs from the 1960s that I posted a short while ago, here is a negative that I acquired in the UK that may stir similar interest especially with the older members who may know where this is located.

Did any of you take a ride on the Wompy speedboat?!!

The hotel name is unclear...I think it reads "Strand Hotel"

That narrows it down to just about any British seaside resort doesn't it?? lol

There are other negs showing a very long pier ....perhaps that would give a clue to the location although I have no idea if they are from the same film!

11755286.jpg

Shot at 2012-02-08

70313704.jpg

Shot at 2012-02-08
 
Here's the said shot with the long pier....

70187091.jpg

Shot at 2012-02-08
 
Normally piers would only be that long if there was a huge tidal flow, the only pier I know that is really long is Southend pier, unless anyone knows differently and I'm pretty sure Southend is pebbles too.

Just googled some images of Southen pier and there's a bit at 90deg to the main structure that I cant see in your shot, so unless it was added after your shot I'm not so sure its Southend.
 
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Pretty sure the pier is Southend On Sea....hard to find any info on Wompy
 
Yes agreed that the pier does look like Southend
As for Wompy, I've been trying searches and keep getting Wimpy!!!:D:D:D

I had a look on google earth for the hotel ...There is a Strand Hotel on the prom at Southend...doesn't look to resemble anything like in the photo though:(
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
Pretty sure the pier is Southend On Sea....hard to find any info on Wompy
Click to expand...
I found some 50's photos on Google and there's an extension at 90deg I dont see on these pictures.
 
Under the Wompy bit of the sign it also seems to say "trips around the bay & lighthouse"
 
n.

WOMPY SPEEDBOAT COMPANY Limited.
(In Voluntary Liquidation.)
I
T an Extraordinary General Meeting of the
above Company held at Frascati's Reataurant, Oxford-street, London, W., on Friday,
the 15th November, 1929, at ,2.30 o'clock, the
following Extraordinary Resolution was passed: —
" That it has been proved to the satisfaction of
this Meeting that the Company cannot, by reason
of its liabilities, continue its business, and that it
is advisable to wind up the same, and accordingly
that the Company be wound up voluntarily; and
that Mr. W. G. T. Pemberton, of Messrs. Rowley,
Pemberton & Co., 34 and 36, Gresham-street, in
the city of London, Chartered Accountant, be
appointed Liquidator for the purposes of the
winding-up."
(082) W. G. T. PEMBERTON, Liquidator
Click to expand...

from http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/33554/pages/7600/page.pdf
 
Mmm very interesting ...If it folded in 1929, I wonder how long it had been running ...even if this shot had been taken in the summer of 1929 it's fascinating to view someones holiday snapshot from over 80 years ago
 
here's another neg ..very blurred and overexposed...sadly the nme on the boat is illegible..well to my kn******d eyes it is anyway:D

94299717.jpg

Shot at 2012-02-08
 
MatBin said:
I found some 50's photos on Google and there's an extension at 90deg I dont see on these pictures.
Click to expand...

There is some sort of mass of supports at the end, but yeah I doesn't look quite right :(
 
It's don't think it's long enough to be Southend, which was over a mile long. My guess would be either Brighton or Eastbourne, both of which has a Strand Hotel, a lighthouse and a fairly long pier with pebble beaches. Eastbourne do still do trips round the bay and lighthouse even today, using an old army DUKW.

One of the posters in the boatmad forum linked above lives in Eastbourne, and looking at old photos from the 1920's and 1930's, the pier does look very much like the one in the 3rd photo.
 
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ChrisGilbert said:
Agreed. Spent a significant part of my childhood there and it's longer than the one in the image.
Click to expand...

Mmmm back to the drawing board for location then.....anybody else swayed towards Brighton or Eastbourne or maybe even somewhere else?!!
 
Well, that was an interesting half an hour.

The construction of the supports resemble Southend Pier along with the building half way along.

MatBin said:
I found some 50's photos on Google and there's an extension at 90deg I dont see on these pictures.
Click to expand...

I found this on the Southend Council website
'The final addition to the length was opened in 1929. The Prince George Extension, as it is called, brought the length to 2360 yards (2158 metres) or 1.34 miles, the Longest Pleasure Pier in the World'
http://www.southend.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200135&documentID=1019

Still doesn't help with Wompy's tho' :(
Not giving up yet
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
Can you get any more detail out of the Wompy sign Asha?
Click to expand...

I tried to get more detail on the bottom line of the sign with no luck ....I'll keep messing.... the last three words may be the key!
 
I have just had a look through a list of surviving piers and none seem to match, will have a look through the none surviving ones when I get chance.
 
Graham V said:
Well, that was an interesting half an hour.

The construction of the supports resemble Southend Pier along with the building half way along.



I found this on the Southend Council website
'The final addition to the length was opened in 1929. The Prince George Extension, as it is called, brought the length to 2360 yards (2158 metres) or 1.34 miles, the Longest Pleasure Pier in the World'
http://www.southend.gov.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?categoryID=200135&documentID=1019

Still doesn't help with Wompy's tho' :(
Not giving up yet
Click to expand...

lol no don't give up ....consider it a challenge with a difference .....most of us are doing 52s or 366s, but I reckon trying to locate my old negs is sometimes far more challenging :D :D :D
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
I have just had a look through a list of surviving piers and none seem to match, will have a look through the none surviving ones when I get chance.
Click to expand...

Does that involve an oxygen bottle and diving suit to check out the remains??! :D :D :D
 
Jimmy_Lemon said:
from http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/33554/pages/7600/page.pdf
Click to expand...

The company can really narrow down the time period..

Company number: 236648; Wompy Speed Boat Company Ltd. Incorporated 1929. Liquidator's Accounts on the dissolution of the company at some point between 1929 and 1932
Click to expand...
TNA

It's almost certainly Summer 1929 if the company was only incorporated in 1929 and by November the shareholders were already liquidating the business.
 
It was bugging me so I contacted the National Piers Society via Twitter. They have just got back to me with:

"General concensus seems to be Felixstowe, although Herne Bay was also suggested."

The buildings seem to certainly match the Felixstowe style.
 
Well done guys!:clap:
Thank you for taking time to do research.
Definetly been worthwhile (y)
 
Hasn't changed too much considering the time lapse between the shots.
Thanks for taking the time search out the modern use of the building.....seems it is very much a "gig" location ...my type of pub!
 
I love that there is still a hut on the side of the beach in the same spot.
 
Hiya
I'll have a proper look at these pics tomorrow but I'm not sure these are Felixstowe. The pier was deliberately shortened in ww2 so Germans couldn't use it to land. So any images of the long pier would be pre-ww2, not 60s

Also to my knowledge, Felixstowe has never had a lighthouse and it doesn't really have a bay
 
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benners said:
Hiya
I'll have a proper look at these pics tomorrow but I'm not sure these are Felixstowe. The pier was deliberately shortened in ww2 so Germans couldn't use it to land. So any images of the long pier would be pre-ww2, not 60s

Also to my knowledge, Felixstowe has never had a lighthouse and it doesn't really have a bay
Click to expand...

I think we have pinned them down to 1929 (or at least the speed boats were only in business then...could be an old sign).

Given the building matching so damn well I am 99% sure it is Felixstowe.
 
There was a lighthouse at Landguard point (1906 image) - it would be highly unusual for there not to be a lighthouse on that section of coast - and there's a distinct enough shallow bay to count as "round the bay", or that could have been applied to the estuary.
 
Ahh that would make more sense then with dates :)

I'll dig out some old local books I have and see if I can match up any pics for you. Now I think about it, Felixstowe did have a kind lighthouse in the early 1900s.

Would be happy to look at any others you have to see if they are also local images :)
 
Alastair said:
There was a lighthouse at Landguard point (1906 image) - it would be highly unusual for there not to be a lighthouse on that section of coast - and there's a distinct enough shallow bay to count as "round the bay", or that could have been applied to the estuary.
Click to expand...

That looks it, there's never been a permanent lighthouse building, think the area used to use the martello towers and beacons instead. The area certainly isn't locally known as a bay these days, but may have been before for Wimpy marketing purposes :)
 
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