A dinghy on the Nene

At the beginning of May, the Curator (Dorothy) and a valued volunteer (Nina Kemp) were working through our backlog of cataloguing which is needed to allow the Museum to know which items we hold at Thorney Museum which can help us to show our local history. We found a photo of a group of people down on the North Bank. From the clothes and the Morris Minor we guessed early 1960s. The photograph was given to the Museum in 1990 by Mr Ulyett, a former teacher at the Duke of Bedford School.

It was exciting and very welcome when Mr Bill Bishop, a pupil at the school from 1952 to 1962 brought another copy of the photo only another couple of days later! He was able to give the Museum stewards and then the Curator some more information as well. We know that the photo shows Mr TB Ulyett in the boat with Bill Bishop. On the bank are Stella Bacon, Barry Tibbles (who we were sad to hear has recently died) and Mr Andrews. We think the ladies may include Mrs Andrews. Another may have lived at the former Old Bedford Pub, next to what is now Millennium Bridge at the western end of Thorney's North Bank. We think the car belonged to Miss Bacon. Is that also a baby, wrapped in white, in someone's arms?

We have other photos of Thorney dinghies competing at Ferry Meadows and Grafham Water, and I think there are more items to do with Mr Ulyett and sailing to find as we work through the boxes in our stores.

Two people in a small dinghy with lifejackets, and a group of other people on the bank