Four Year Round Up

Report on the Royal Shallop Jubilant and the activities of the Jubilant Trust 2002/06

2002

In 2002 the Thames Traditional Rowing Association, formed the Jubilant Trust as a Golden Jubilee project to mark Her Majesty the Queen’s accession to the throne. The purpose of the Trust was to enable disadvantaged people and those with disabilities or otherwise unlikely to be able to learn to row, train and exercise by rowing to enjoy the Thames in a traditional style craft. The craft that the trustees chose to be built for this purpose was a replica of an 18th Century Navy Commissioner’s Shallop and copied from one belonging to the National Maritime Museum and on display in Somerset House.

Thanks to some very generous supporters, both individual and corporate, we were able to build the boat and launch her on 14th September within the Jubilee year. Our main benefactor was Lloyd’s Register of Shipping.

2003

During the following summer of 2003, we held regular sessions for all comers to row the barge on the tidal Thames. We accommodated complete novices, mixed ability crews, parties of scouts and sea scouts. Basic instruction was provided and we were successful in attracting people with disabilities to special sessions to enjoy the river and try their hands at rowing or steering the barge. For example one blind adult student from the learning support unit at Richmond College, with a mental age of six, experienced great joy when allowed to steer the barge, under supervision, with eight of his classmates on board, all of whom had various learning difficulties. They managed, with their carers and Jubilant Trust volunteers help, to row the shallop for themselves.

“Jubilant” was honoured to be invited to appear at Henley Royal Regatta at which the Royal Watermen took her out beside the course on the Thursday and a crew from Westminster School past and present rowed her on the course during the Sunday Tea interval. Two sponsors generously defrayed the costs of getting her to the regatta and back home to Richmond.

Earlier in the summer, on the Whitsun bank holiday weekend the Royal Watermen, in company with a flotilla of Thames Watermen’s Cutters rowed her for charity. The proceeds were given to the Philip Henman Foundation, a charity that helps train apprentice watermen.

In July Jubilant appeared at the Royal opening ceremony of the Golden Jubilee footbridges in central London and also appeared at the Great River Race in September.

Just before the end of the season the chairman Lloyd’s Register of Shipping, the project’s major sponsor, was taken out and rowed down river to Chiswick Pier, to thank him and allow him to experience at first hand the craft that the Register’s generosity had enabled us to build.

2004

The second full season began in April with recreational outings on Wednesday evenings to help publicise the trust’s activities. These sessions for all comers continued with outings by Scout Groups visiting London and local Cub groups were invited to row her as experience showed she was a very forgiving craft to row, and easy for novices due to her stability and graceful lines.

She again raised money for the Philip Henman Foundation in the annual Tudor Pull from Hampton Court Palace to the Tower of London and was entered into the Great River Race by the Rotary Club to raise money for their “Aqua Box” Emergency Relief scheme.

Students from the Richmond upon Thames College again went out in the craft. This time a class of adolescents who had behavioural difficulties was introduced to rowing and it channelled their unruly energies in a very constructive way. The feedback from the tutors afterwards was most positive. The group they reported, usually disruptive, had behaved well and co-operated with each other in a greater degree than on any other out of College activity they had engaged in that year.

At the end of September the Royal Naval Frigate HMS Cornwall hired the “Jubilant” to carry out the ceremony of the “Dues”. A crew of ratings, from mixed technical disciplines in the ship, had an hour and a half tuition in rowing two days before the ceremony was to take place. In that short time they progressed from non-rowers to being able to cope with the strong tidal flow in the Pool and the event passed off without incident, with the Ship’s Captain riding with the Rum Barrel across the pool to Tower Pier, against a fierce ebb tide.

Winter storage on land was once again kindly offered free of charge by a farmer from Upper Halliford, himself a rower, and she was transported there overland on November 4th. In preparation for next season a set of second hand lightweight oars was acquired from the Tideway Scullers Club at a specially reduced price.

These “new” oars help those less physically strong and people who may through stroke or other problems only use one arm effectively to row with confidence. Work didn’t cease with the Jubilant off the water; rather the opposite with an interior cabin moulding being fitted to add some extra style to her. The lightweight oars were made to fit and the blades painted.

Fund raising included a William Young Charitable Trust donation of £1500 and they reserved the shallop for the 2005 Trafalgar Great River Race for a crew drawn from regulars of the White Cross pub in Richmond who also undertook to get more sponsorship for their efforts. The Thames Nelson Flotilla organisers also reserved her for the re-enactment of Nelson’s funeral procession on the Thames, scheduled for the 16th September 2005.

2005

During the latter part of the winter the Jubilant was readied for the season with anti-fouling and minor repairs to paint work and some of the moveable items on board. The navigation lighting board fittings were improve for the PLA inspection and the life jackets received their annual service.

The annual Tudor Pull on 2nd May started the season’s activities with the “Stela” being presented to Lord Howells of Guildford at the Shakespeare Globe Theatre. It is an occasion for further fund raising which is shared with the Philip Henman Trust, however the response was quite meagre.
This season the 14th Richmond Sea Scout Group agreed to handle the bookings for the use of the Jubilant, promoting it throughout the London Scout area, with a great deal of success.

The second engagement was with the Thames Landscape Strategy who took her ashore and put her on display on Richmond Green for the Richmond “May Fayre”. Here she was the centrepiece of the Arcadia in the City display.

The Wednesday evening sessions for all comers continued under the guidance of the Sea Scouts and thanks to Vic Griffiths, Mark Edwards and for keeping this going. Training sessions for the White Cross crew were also fitted in under, Ian the pub Landlord .

In July the Trust was honoured to be asked, by long standing Richmond resident Bamber Gascoigne, to supply the boat for his seventieth birthday celebrations. These extended over several days with small groups of his special friends rowing and being rowed up river for picnics; a very useful piece of promotion for which we received a generous donation. A purely commercial booking was gained where the Jubilant was engaged to carry the coffin of another Richmond resident and river enthusiast down stream to Mortlake Cemetery.

A party of rowers chartered her for a row from Abingdon to Richmond immediately after her annual appearance at the Spellthorne River Festival on the first Saturday in September.

The Mayor of Richmond Robin Jowit, took to the water on board Jubilant twice in September. On the first occasion he was rowed in company with the Cornish Pilot Gig “Unity” that had been on a sponsored row in aid of the RNLI up the Bristol Channel and down the Thames to London. They rendez-vous’d at Glover’s Eyot and together proceeded to Chiswick Pier to be met by the Mayor of Hounslow. Councillor Jowit was also the passenger on board during the Trafalgar Great River Race on 17th of September and took his turn at the oars, much to the relief of the crew.

Emirates Thames Nelson Flotilla

The 16th September saw the re-enactment of Admiral Lord Nelson’s funeral procession along the Thames from Greenwich to Whitehall. Jubilant carried a miniature coffin with a scroll inside in place of the corpse, together with the First Sea Lord, Lord Mayor of Westminster and representative of the Lord Mayor of London.

Thirty eight other traditional rowed craft and a flotilla of 40 motor boats and pleasure craft made up the spectacle, which was watched by thousands of people from the banks and bridges all along the route. A fifteen gun salute was fired by the Royal Navy from HMS Belfast which was replied to by the cannons mounted on two of the Pilot Gigs. The scroll was disembarked at HQS Wellington and presented to the Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral on board in the presence of the Princess Royal.

2006

The diary for 2006 records that there were 42 bookings made during the season of which 7 were cancelled or postponed till 2007.

Co-operation with Sea Scouts and Cutter outings

Thanks to Vic Griffiths of the 14th Richmond Viking Sea Scouts for keeping the diary or Jubilant Log for the 2006 Season . He has now become the South West London Area water organiser for the Scout movement. Next year as the 100th Anniversary of Scouting is important to them and we anticipate that the Jubilant will feature in some way in celebration of this great movement.

The Sea Scouts arranged outings for the charity CLIC on 3 days in June and for both the Hampton Hill Explorers and Riverside Vineyard (Edge Charity) in July. Jointly the scout cutters and Jubilant helped 188 under 18 year olds. At least 419 adults including mentally handicapped escorted outings.

Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre Roman Season Opening

We were pleased to be invited to take part in this high profile theatrical occasion to commemorate Shakespeare’s birthday in April.

The Jubilant was chartered by the theatre to transport the actress Frances Barber who played Cleopatra in the opening production, from Egypt (Temple Pier) to Rome (the Globe), disembarking her and her hand-maidens at Bankside. All decked out as an ancient Nile barge Jubilant had members of the Thames Wherry Trust as the “galley slaves”.

This was the first time that the cabin had been removed for any reason and gave the opportunity for installing a flexible arrangement for attaching the roof to the walls. It also allowed a new roof lining to be installed to cover the area where the original roof had leaked and been repaired. The weather was not too clement and Cleopatra remarked to the assembled crowd on the bank “Well it was sunny when I left Egypt”.

The regular fund raising ceremonial row the Tudor Pull by the Royal Watermen took place in aid of the Water Conservation Trust. A timely action considering the impending drought and water restrictions in the South East of England, and the Philip Henman Foundation.

A new “client” organisation, Cape Café a community centre for the disadvantaged in Ealing, was recruited and two separate outings took place and a further two were cancelled due to the weather in the early autumn.

The Head Master of St James Independent School for Boys in Twickenham booked the Shallop as a surprise for his staff end of term party with the object of getting them interested in both helping with the boat and motivating them towards encouraging rowing at the school. We have Robin Jowit CBE the then Mayor of Richmond to thank for initiating this introduction during the winter months. Another introduction to St Paul’s School at Barnes was less successful.

World Rowing Championships

In August we were honoured to have been invited to take part in the WRC opening ceremony on Dorney Lake near Eton. This is the venue for the rowing competitions at the 2012 London Olympic Games. It was a valuable learning experience for the organisers and participants. The crew was made up of Doggett’s winners in their scarlet 18th Century style uniforms.

Great River Race

Once again the White Cross Public House on the river side at Richmond pledged to raise funds for the Trust and entered a crew, including the pub chef, in the Great River Race. They were steered jointly by Ian Heggie, the landlord and Vic Griffiths, one of our approved helms.

The Mayor of Richmond Cllr Bill Treble was their passenger for the Great River Race and the White Cross Pub crew jointly raised about £3000 to be shared between the Jubilant and the Scout Movement. Richmond Council also made a contribution.

Thames Landscape Strategy

An increasingly valuable connection has been forged between the Trust and the Thames Landscape Strategy. The following report shows how the Strategy is assisting the Trust in meeting some of its objectives.

Ken Mackenzie, London’s Arcadia Project Manager reports on The Thames Landscape Strategy in Action!

Following this they took part in creating collaborative art works by taking something from the garden to create their own works with help from local artists. The project was called Natural Talent and it ended with the treat of the kids being taken out on the Jubilant. They took turns at rowing and steering the Jubilant, which was a real treat that the kids loved and all their own artwork that they did afterwards was of the Jubilant.

TLS held an education project on the Jubilant from last Spring with London’s Arcadia, Orleans House Gallery and kids from St Mary’s Primary School in Twickenham. The project was based over 5 different days and 45 kids took part (with some help of some youths). They were learning about things in the natural local environment and using them in art works. They learned about the river, trees, flowers and the links between the various elements and how these are used in art in various media by looking at some works from the art collection at Orleans House Gallery as well as looking at things in the local gardens.

About Rowing, The Local History, Watermen and see things from a different perspective - By rowing the Jubilant. “Thames Landscape Strategy and Orleans House Gallery London’s Arcadia”.

Earlier in May, the Duchess of Devonshire was taken afloat in the Jubilant on a river inspection of the work the TLS has been doing to improve the riverside environment.

The Trust has benefited this year from various donations. Several specific donations have been received. One as a memorial from friends and relatives of Frank Mowatt, a rowing enthusiast who rowed on the River Lee in the 1920’s and 30’s, another from a descendant of the owner in 1877 of the boathouse by Barnes Bridge who donated her fees for talks on the River Thames. Those invited to attend the Trust’s AGM in May and some who were unable to attend, responded with generosity.

In summary

The Jubilant is now laid up at her winter quarters. It is possible that an indoor winter store may become available when the plans are realised for the Richmond Environment Trust’s “River Centre” at Twickenham. This is to be part of the redevelopment on the site of the old swimming baths. This is however a few years away yet.

The Trust has continued to meet its objectives and aims to maintain a modest reserve against contingency. An unavoidable expense for example is specialist full insurance cover, which increases each year. With the help of some generous supporters and volunteers we look forward to another successful season in the coming year.