Island Life Magazine Ltd August/September 2009 | Page 36

life

ISLAND HISTORY

Photo: GKN Aerospace Services where the hangar doors have the biggest Union Jack in the world,
painted in 1977 to celebrate the Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth 11.

COWES - The TOWN
Cowes is the principal yachting port in

Article by June Elford

the British Isles and Cowes Week is the
most vivid spectacle in International
yacht racing. Originally called Shamblord,
Shamblers Copse today is the only
evidence that the two ancient estates of
East Shamlord and West Shamlord existed.
In 1540 Leland wrote, “There be two new
castelles sette up and furnished at the
mouth of Newporte,” referring to the two
forts, East Cow and West Cow, built by
Henry V111 to protect the coast and the
shipyards from attacks by the French.
I boarded the car ferry that links the
two towns at East Cowes. It’s one of the
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event in the sailing calendar and in a
huge loft I found Mike Minter marking

few floating bridges still in use in the
country and clanks across the river past
GKN Aerospace Services where the hangar
doors have the biggest Union Jack in the
world, painted in 1977 to celebrate the
Silver Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth 11.
I’d collected a The Boat Trail leaflet
from the Tourist Office and in Medina
Road I found Ratsey and Lapthorn, the
well-known firm of sail makers. Ratsey’s
have been making sails since 1790 and
measure and design sails by hand today.
Cowes Week in August is the biggest

out a sail and on the floor below, Jim was
sewing a sail in the machine pit. As Tom
W. Ratsey once said, “There is only one
standard of work – best”.
When their premises were destroyed
in the war, Ratsey’s relocated to a site
previously owned by J. Samuel White,
a company that had flourished for 150
years until it was closed in 1981 trading
as Elliott Turbomachinery. Back in 1843
Whites patented and built the unsinkable
Lamb and White lifeboats, followed by
torpedo boats. In World War 11, they