RAYBEL DROP-IN DAY at Lloyd's Wharf, Sittingbourne, Kent
Last Sunday of each month, 11am-3pm
Come along to our monthly drop-in Open Days and see Raybel under cover and get an update on fit our progress below deck, hear plans for the next sailing season and learn about new volunteering opportunities.
Built in 1920 in Sittingbourne, the Thames Barge Raybel is a coasting barge built for GF Sully, of London. Raybel was named for his children Raymond and Isabel and was used for family summer holidays. In WWII, Raybel was commandeered by the Admiralty and for the remainder of the war worked from the Clyde as supply ship to naval craft. An auxiliary engine was fitted at this time, and after the war Raybel continued to deliver all manner of cargos between London and east coast ports as well as the near continent.
In 1974, she was sold to the artist Ian Houston, who founded Raybel Charters the same year, and Raybel returned to trade for two more years, with cargoes including wheat, starch, haricot beans, pitch, and flour.
A restoration project was conceived by new owners in 2016/17, and Raybel Charters Community Interest Company established in 2018. Thanks to Heritage Lottery Funding, work began in March 2021, and Raybel was refloated with all structural work completed, in May 2024, 104 years after she was built – and just a few hundred yards up Milton Creek from the Wills and Packham Yard where she was launched in August 1920.
A programme of volunteering, open days, creative workshops and archive research has run alongside the conservation work. The project has been a key component of a new heritage cultural and leisure site at Lloyd’s Wharf on Milton Creek, re-connecting Sittingbourne with its maritime heritage. This has been especially important as a restoration has never been carried out in the town, despite its rich heritage in barge construction.
In November 2025, Raybel was announced as the Winner of the Martyn Heighton Award for Excellence in Maritime Conservation at the 2025 National Historic Ships UK Awards.
2026 Dates:
JANUARY 25th
FEBRUARY 22nd
MARCH 29th
APRIL 26th
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