The Films of Jack Ryding (4) - The River through the Years. 'A Visit to Preston Dock' (1966)

Jack Ryding worked as a crane driver at Preston Dock for over 30 years. Jack was a keen member of Preston Cine Club and made several documentaries about activity at Preston Docks. Collectively they came under the title "The River through the Years" In part 4 "A visit to Preston Dock" we see regular daily activity at the port. The film is narrated by Derek Thompson.

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The beginning where jack tells how he loaded china clay into the hopper at the top of the clay sheds brings back memories, as kids we used to play in the china clay sheds, under the hopper were railway type wagons running on rails which accepted the clay and would then be pushed along the rails to different bays, they would then open the bottom and the clay would empty out into the bay, we were playing in there one sunday afternoon and i was hanging and dropping from the rails into the piles of clay below, i happened to hang over a bay which was empty so it was too high to drop, i began to handwalk along the tracks when my mate pushed a wagon along the tracks and it ran over my fingers on both hands, it must have weighed at least half a ton, my fingers were flattened.