A Model Subject

Endeavour in her original form, originally owned by Dave Spurgeon, now by his sons

We’ve previously reported on the remote control model of Endeavour built by Jimmy and Barbara Waters, but that wasn’t the first time Endeavour had been rendered at small scale.  Or the second. Or, indeed, third!

It turns out that there are three earlier model Endeavours, owned by Trust Chairman, Peter Wexham, the son of former owner Dave Spurgeon, and a third by his nephew, Steven Cocks, and all were built by Leigh fisherman, Ted Potter. Ted's mother was a Willder and he owned the shrimp boat Ceresta, which used to be moored behind Renown. He began working the sea during the war, going out with his grandfather and uncle.

Ceresta was built in 1955 by Seacraft in Leigh on a White Fish Authority grant/loan scheme. She was initially used for shrimping, working a wooden beam trawl, and later, after a winch was fitted, for white weeding and fishing with an otter trawl (a 'y' shaped net with wooden boards attached either side of the mouth to keep it open as it was pulled across the sea floor). She was never used for cockling; the change to fishing was brought about by a decline in the shrimp catch due to pollution in the Estuary. 

Ted on Ceresta, 1950s. Photo courtesy of Graham Potter

In the image above, Ted can been seen on Ceresta not long after she was built, taking the boiled shrimps out of the “copper” boiler and putting them on the cooling net. After cooling, the shrimp would be measured out in a one gallon container into sacks or baskets and cockle stockings for smaller orders. On the back of the coaming  - the boards around the hold preventing water from entering - there is a wooden pin, which ensured that the tiller kept over while towing the trawl. Also visible is a circular sieve for grading the shrimps and the wooden box they were put in awaiting their turn in the copper. As the laws on food hygiene changed, so too did the fishing practices, so this is an interesting glimpse into how shrimping used to be done. 

Ceresta  had a belt-driven capstan for hauling the rope the trawl warps, which changed to steel wire when a winch was fitted.

Ted eventually sold Ceresta to Mason West for fishing and possibly shrimping, who fitted a handrail and painted her red to match his main vessel, Mary Maria. Ceresta's current whereabouts is not known, but there are rumours of her being used as a houseboat in Ireland.

Ted continued working with Peter Belton on Reminder (LO38) for a few years. Ted was captured on film taking Rick Stein to catch shrimp for an episode of his 1999 series Seafood Odyssey (available on iPlayer, Episode 1, from 26:15)  and then for the Osbornes after they bought Reminder for their shed.

It was once Ted retired that he began to start making his model bawleys, but he'd always been a model maker. His son, Graham, recalls his childhood in a pre-TV era as being filled with model making with his father, often based on plans and kits from Hobbies magazine ("We still have his model of the Lowestoft trawler illustrated on the 1957 edition!" says Graham) as well as model railways and Airfix kits.

Ted’s bawleys started from plywood keels with 3/4" thick wood each side fret cut to rough shape. He'd work from measurements where possible, and from photos and his own knowledge to get the dimensions. He wouldn't need to create station profiles (where individual points on the hull are mapped to ensure that the curves are correct). Graham recalls that on the models of earlier boats that were no longer with us, his father would work from memory and a few basic dimensions.  With most of the Leigh boatbuilders having their own particular style and lines, Ted was familiar with the shapes of the hulls.

Joe Deal's shrimper, originally owned by his daughter Reta Cocks, and now her son Steven

Ted would then carve and power-sand the hulls to shape. Decks were added together with coamings, masts, wheelhouses and running gear, which was a mixture of found objects and parts from model shipwrights. Names and numbers were added in Letraset and paint was generally small Humbrol tins, though on occasion was sourced from the actual boat.

Endeavour in her corporation blue, as a fishing, whitebait and shrimping boat

Ted with his model of his great grandfather George Willder's bawley, GMAC

Ted Potter passed away not long after making the Endeavour models.

Dave Spurgeon, who worked Endeavour with Peter Wexham, originally owned the cockle boat version that most closely resembles how Endeavour looked when she was first built, and how she looks now. In a 2002 article about his model for the Leigh Times, Dave said, "I never really had an old photo ad so this model will be put in a display cabinet in pride of place next to the television so that we can look at whatever is the more interesting!" The model is now with his son.

After Peter Wexham purchased Endeavour from Joe Deal, Dave bought a half share in the boat and they worked her together for a few years shrimping, white weeding and fishing for Dover soles. Dave was sole owner for a further ten years until health problems forced him to sell up and stay off the sea for while.

Reta Cocks, Joe Deal's daughter, originally had the shrimp boat model, set up as it was during her father’s ownership - now passed to her son Steven, while Peter had the multi-purpose fishing, white weeding & shrimping version from when he owned her in the 1960s and 70s.

The Trust gratefully acknowledges the assistance of Ted’s son Graham with this article. If anyone has an interest in Ted's models, the Facebook Group The Leigh Bawleys and Cocklers has featured quite a few. Graham, who has a 35mm archive of all of his father's models needing to be scanned, has now joined. Hopefully there will be many more photos of his father's beautiful models to come!

Courtesy of Graham, below is a video of Ted demonstrating how he made his models, made by Ted's cousin, Eric Willder. The video was digitised from VHS and quality is not high, but it is watchable and very interesting. 

Errata: In the version of this story we put in our newsletter, we said that Dave Spurgeon's model had gone to Peter Wexham after Dave's death. We have amended this version to say that it resides with Dave's son. Our apologies.