Sea Scouts, Sailing, Memories of Suffolk
& the humble origins of Chris Wood Artist
Dipping into the mists of time, I recall that back in the mid 1960's, the 9th Ipswich Sea Scouts not only had a brand new purpose built scout hut but a wonderful assortment of small boats, an amazing collection of ridge tents, a huge collection of ropes and spars and a very decrepit Ford Transit van. Whilst there was and still is, plenty of good sailing water in the river Orwell, our sailing base was Woodbridge on the picturesque tidal river Deben in Suffolk.
I had sailed with my parents aboard their various yachts since I was in nappies but this was not enough - as an energetic 12 year old I decided that I wanted to gain experience of camping too so together with my best friend, I joined the 9th Ipswich Sea Scouts and donned my neckscarfe & woggle. The scout hut was about a mile from where we lived and we divided our time between there and the boat compound in Woodbridge, which is about an 8 mile cycle ride away. The scout group itself was a flourishing organisation and there were lots to get involved with. At the time, there were two scout masters and they had the thankless task of controlling about 30 teenagers.
We were divided into about six patrols, Kingfishers, Seagulls, Peewits etc etc. Each patrol had a patrol leader who was usually about 15 years old and a second in command, known as a seconder, who was recruited from the ranks. Our evening activities were divided up into some rough and tumble games, (no doubt with the intention of tiring us out), learning seamanship, rope work, backwoodsmanship and team bonding activities such as planning for our numerous camping and sailing activities. We also worked towards various badges such as second class, first class scout and Queens scout. In addition, there were specialist badges to work for and if you got the first class scout award plus 6 activities badges you were awarded the "Green Scout Cord" which was a glorious braided piece of silken rope not dissimilar to a curtain tie. This was worn around the right arm and over the shoulder and you looked like some kind of visiting head of state from the Orient !
There were various investitures and ceremonies that we would go to at the weekends and we also did a lot of fund raising activities to pay for it all. We paid our subs (subscriptions) of six old pence per week - not that those went very far, I'm sure ! The highlight of the evening was to go to the local fish and chip shop after scouts and buy sixpeneth of chips and if we were lucky they would throw in some free scraps (scraps of fried batter). After finishing our evening at 9.00pm we were certainly ready for food of any description and chips and gossip with your mates on a dark and cold winters night was close to heaven !
One of my favourite and more dangerous games, (which I'm sure is now outlawed) was British Bulldog. The game was a good training for rugby. It began with one poor lad on his own in the middle of the hut - all the other boys would be at the far end of the hut and on the command British Bulldog they would run full tilt past the lad in the middle, thundering past him with the aim to getting to the other end without being caught. His job was to recruit a team by grabbing one of his peers, as they ran past, holding them round the middle and raising them aloft and shouting "British Bulldog one, two, three". Providing the hapless victim stayed off the ground during the chant, he would be "got" and join the guys in the middle. It goes without saying that the object of the exercise was to run like mad straight past the group in the middle and if caught, you would wriggle free and avoid being lifted into the air. The scout hut was about 60 feet by 30 feet and all the furniture was stacked up in an anti room before the mayhem and this was all part of the fun. It goes without saying that nearly everyone ended up with some minor bruises and to this day, I don't know how we managed to escape without broken bones - I certainly don't recall any !
In addition to the scouts who were aged from 11-16 there was an active cub pack and a group of Rovers (who later became known as Venture Scouts) who were the over 16's. I served my time in the group and ended up patrol leader of Kingfishers, then at 16 I passed into the creme d la creme, the Venture Scouts and became a junior leader.
Whilst initially I joined the scouts to gain some experience of camping, what kept my interest was the water sports and we had plenty ! The group owned an assortment of rowing and sailing dinghies which, in spring and summer got used almost every weekend. In addition we used to borrow some large 30 foot Whalers from HMS Ganges, http://www.hmsgangesassoc.org/node/49 a local Royal Naval training establishment that was based at Shotley, on the banks of Harwich harbour. This was a scary place for a youngster as the harbour is the estuary of two wide rivers - the Stour and the Orwell and apart from the huge ships that used to ply up and down, the currents are quite strong - as oarsmen this resulted in the development of some excellent biceps ! The Naval Base had about 12 of these Whalers and every year they hosted a regatta for the all the sea scout groups in the county - the rivalry was fierce - but we nearly always won ! The Whalers were propelled by eight oarsmen (boys) and there was a coxswain steering. I was usually the "stroke" and sat on the port-hand side of the boat with my back to the bow and facing the stern. The job of the stroke is to establish the pace and all the other chaps in the thwarts (seats) behind would watch me and dip their oars into the water the instant mine hit the briny, we would then all pull together, like we were possessed ! The coxswain was usually the smallest and it was his job to steer and give the command to increase the pace. The oars were huge and resembled masts rather than oars ! They were nearly 8 feet long and had a large circumference and for young boys with small hands it was difficult even to lift the oar out of the water let alone row with them ! Even with plenty of practice after a day of handling these massive oars you would end up with huge blisters not to mention total exhaustion !
In addition to the Whalers, HMS Ganges owned a large number of sailing dinghies and again we had free rein with these. They were known as Bosun dinghies and the Navy owned a total of 800 ! They were designed in 1963 and were a light weight 14 foot fibreglass boat with a conventional Bermudan rig with a spinnaker and jib at the bow and a triangular mainsail. I enjoyed sailing them as although they were designed to be a good training boat they were also quick and responsive. http://www.bossoms.com/launches-dinghies-yachts/bosun.html
Amongst our own boats were a custom built rowing boat, similar to the Whalers and we also had several sailing dinghies including a 14 foot plywood "Enterprise" http://www.sailenterprise.org.uk/ dinghy and two smaller heavier "Torch" sailing dinghies http://www.noblemarine.co.uk/boats/dinghy/Torch/ . For a number of years we kept the boats in a compound in Woodbridge and later moved them to Martlesham Creek. The creek was a couple of miles closer to home so this was good news on several fronts! Local builder, Roy Ingham, owned a large piece of woodland that ran down to the creek, where there were a collection of wobbly pontoons that the boats were moored to. The creek is tidal and runs into the river Deben. When the water disappeared there was a sea of very soft mud that stretched as far as the eye could see ! The coppiced wood was a fantastic place and we often camped there in the school holidays. We were allowed to chop down trees, dig wet pits, have camp fires and do all the things that scouts used to get up to before the days of litigation and health and safety !
This isn't meant to sound like an advert for scouting but I am a firm believer in the benefits of scouting. It's a shame its not so popular these days - it taught us so many skills and gave us a solid foundation for life itself ! I stayed in scouting whilst I was at College and went on to be a Venture scout and junior leader. After graduating I went to London to do a post graduate course and whilst that was the end of my scouting career it certainly wasn't the end of my sailing and I went from strength to strength, sailing bigger and faster boats.
Careers
From a very early age my parents encouraged me to record things and to ask questions and I had a great time drawing anything and everything. As soon as I was portable I was taken sailing and that meant from the age of about two months - I have several photos of me still in nappies aboard various yachts and looking very hearty too ! In addition to the 5.5 Metre, my parents used to race smaller dinghies and whilst they thrashed around the cans I was billeted on my two uncles who spoilt me rotten and I often became the centre of attention in their fisherman's hut at Felixstowe Ferry. Billy danced attendance and Settler regaled all with weird and wonderful stories of the sea whilst hundreds of other local fisherman dropped in and out for a cuppa and a yarn. I would sit in the corner with a sketchpad and draw square rigged ships and the odd portrait, for which I would be given a couple of bob (I doubt the drawings were any good - but that was the going rate). I would then nip across the road to the cafe and buy some bubble gum or an apple pie and I was as happy as Larry (whoever he was)! I still like apple pie and the Ferry Cafe still makes the best fish and chips in the land. I recall a wide drainage ditch that ran between the car park and the golf course and it was there that I would spend many a happy hour netting Sticklebacks and getting stung to pieces by the delightful Suffolk midges.
In the hut hung an oil painting by Paddy Gaywood - it was a portrait of Billy with his Trinity House white cap & reefer jacket and I suppose it was that and my early doodles that made me want to do more and more and become a proper artist like Paddy. Back in Ipswich, when I was old enough to go into town on my own, I would either go to the local museum or Christchurch Mansion, where I would draw all the wonderful antiques - I still remember the smell of the floor polish. This was followed almost religiously by a trip to the Haste Gallery in Coleman Street, where I would stare at the latest Lennard Squirrel watercolour and wonder how he did it !
I went from being a precocious child to being a precocious teenager and then went on to art college where I quickly discovered that real artists worked like crazy - so I did, then I went to the Black Horse, followed by the Vaults, the Swan, then Marno's for a coffee or three. We often worked from 9.00am to 9.00pm so a bit of light refreshment very necessary !
To pay for my new found decadence I worked every holiday picking an assortment of fruit and vegetables such as strawberries, blackcurrants, peas and beans - this was back-breaking work and we rarely made much money at all ! I also worked as a labourer on various building sites and again learnt the value of hard graft - still it paid for my art materials and the odd pint of Tolly Cobbold. Why did they ever shut the brewery ? I don't know, you go away for a year or two and they close the best brew house in England !
After four years at Ipswich School of Art I did a further post graduate year at Wimbledon School of Art and this was followed by my first proper job, which was in a design studio in London. We were a separate company but were owned by a big printing firm in the East end of London. Our main clients were multi-national property companies for whom we designed all their promotional material, from brochures for penthouses to office blocks and shopping centres. I was initially employed as a visualiser and later became the in-house illustrator. The premises were in Mansell Street, near Aldgate East and a long underground journey from were I was living in a small flat, which was part of a huge house in Wimbledon Park. The flat was subsidised and ridiculously cheap as I did 10 hours gardening in the grounds per week and I paid about £10 a week for the self contained ground floor apartment. I stayed there for about a year before moving to a smaller and far more expensive flat which I shared with my wife to be - the bonus being no gardening or chores for the landlady - all further chores were for my lady !
After working for the studio for about a year I decided to get a bit of creative freedom and went freelance as an illustrator. At the time I had an agent in Albermarle Street, West London and I took on any commissions I could get but as time went on I found myself specialising in marine painting and doing bookjackets for paperback novels. I also wrote and illustrated a children's book on making kites - this meant delaying my wedding by 6 more months as I was too busy to fit it in ! Freelancing is either feast or famine and during the periods of famine I would look for temporary jobs to earn a crust or two. In desperation when I was rooting through the dustbin I came across a unique opportunity ! In the bin was a magazine that had be thrown away by our flatmate and the magazine was packed with temporary summer jobs for students. One such advert was for someone with experience of sailing to work in a ships chandlery in the unlikely place of Notting Hill Gate - I say unlikely because it was long before Notting Hill became the mecca it is today ! After a quick phone call and a short interview I was given the job, which proved a very lucrative and very interesting diversion.
The job was supposed to end after 6 weeks but thanks to a strong pound the chandlery got busier and busier and I was kept on and every time I threatened to leave I was given a hefty pay rise and more responsibility. After 6 years of working my way up the ladder I became a director of the company and was given the task of running a flagship store in Hamble UK.
Whilst in the marine industry, I somehow managed to find the time to complete numerous commissions for paintings and began to develop a yearning for doing it full time again - so in 1992 after my 14 year sabbatical, I took the plunge and launched Chris Wood Design. I began by producing logo's, corporate identity, exhibition design and advertising for small to medium sized companies, primarily in the marine market. However, I soon developed customers in many other areas such as the Cooperative Funeral Society, a firm of dental practitioners, a wholesaler of photocopiers and a supplier of hygiene equipment to the National Health Service. In addition I marketed myself as an illustrator once more and worked for several major publishing houses.
In common with many freelancers I began the odd bit of teaching. This developed from hosting one-off workshops and master classes to regular adult education classes, until one day I was asked if I would do some day-time cover for a friend who was off sick. What began as a week of cover turned into another career move and I ended up teaching, then full time lecturing and finally in charge of a team of 11 lecturers. Now I am teaching graphic design and fine art 4 days a week in a sixth form college and the remainder of the week is spent in one or other of my studios. Over the years I have also taught life drawing in the evenings and I am currently running an Advanced Life Drawing workshop, primarily for practising artists.
My freelance activity now is more fine art based and I produce large high quality detailed oil paintings for private collectors. Subjects are usually marine and are either historical reconstructions or scenes of contemporary yacht racing.
More memories later !
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