Swindale, Colin

(Born 1948) Interviewed August 2021.

Colin’s life has centred on boats. He lived on a boat at the age of 15 while an apprentice shipwright. He restored hundreds of mainly wooden craft; also working as crew on coasters and barges. He describes many colourful incidents and places visited. For many years his boat, the “Telegraph” was a well-known sight moored in the river alongside the Prom lake. In the later part of the interview Colin describes the last days of rail travel from Maldon to Witham.