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A view of St Marys Bay with the wharf (left), several boats and boatsheds, premises of Collings and Bell, boatbuilders in St Marys Bay Road (left) and residences in Ponsonby overlooking the bay. An interesting collection of photos, same area but taken at different times. The ‘aerial’ one of all the boats stowed in the valley is fun – last boat out is the first one in for the summer.

Input from Harold Kidd (to photo A)

At the end of the wharf is the Ponsonby Cruising Club’s premises before the second storey and balcony was added. Collings & Bell’s original shed is directly behind. To the left of the PCC is the small building in which various things happened like Collings had his test tank, George Murphy lived when he was fishing with ETHEL which tied up alongside the jetty, and Des Donovan did some clinker work post WW2 with Fred Steele as “20th Century Boats”. I may have conflated some of these functions.
To the right of C&B’s slipway is the shed of Peter A. Smith, the engineer who was agent for Alpha marine engines (Danish-made I think) and who commissioned many launches from people like Dick Lang and Tom Le Huquet for customers fitting Alphas. He also traded in boats. Next right is the yard of Peter Barton who did repairs and hired out small boats, later joined by his son Phil, a true gentleman. Dick Lang and later Sam Ford were here and I think used Smith’s premises. I was born in London Street, just out of frame to the left (not terribly much after this image!) by which time the PCC was fully built up and C&B had built a large half-round shed at the back.
It really was the centre of the known universe.