This view of Houghton Bridge shows the backwater linking the main course of the Arun with the side arm where one of the wharves serving the chalk pits was situated (see the old O.S. map below for detail). Both the side arm and the backwater are now heavily silted and overgrown so as to be unusable. The larger vessel in the background shows the characteristic lines of a Dutch barge, double ended with a marked ‘tumble home’ above the side strake of the hull. It appears to be a conversion to a liveaboard, although retaining its single mast. Several postcards in my collection show similar craft on the river at Arundel and Littlehampton. While difficult to confirm that they are the same as this one, it is likely that such visitors to the area were not uncommon.
The smaller craft in the foreground, Dreadnought, has the mainsail rigged as if it has just completed a sail on the river.
The card shown, At Houghton Bridge, by F. Douglas Miller, comes from his Sussex Series. Miller was a renowned publisher from Haywards Heath. This is typical of his style, with the handwritten title bottom left and his embossed details bottom right. It is unused, and the date of printing is probably between 1914 and 1917 when he ceased using embossing. The photograph is therefore pre WW1.
A later postcard using the same photograph appears to have been issued by Charles Edward Bex of Worthing, with a block printed legend, At Houghton Bridge 426, at bottom right. The message on that card mentioned “sleeping in a little houseboat just by bank here on this water”. It was posted at Houghton Bridge in 1923, and sent by “Daddy” to Master H.C. Tuffill in Broadstairs.
