I was intrigued a short while ago to stumble across a vessel by the name of the M.V. Angmering and wondered what connection it had with our village.

Internet searches resulted in only a little information but, coincidentally, Valerie Martin's always interesting "This is Findon" website (www.findonvillage.com) made reference to other ships by the names of Findon and Arundel.

The Angmering was built for A.F. Henry & MacGregor Limited of Leith by Clelands Shipping Company Limited at Wallsend on Tyne in 1965 and at the time was named the Rattray Head. She was built to Lloyd's Register's own technical construction rules and received its highest classification, +100A1. and measured 274 ft. x 42 ft. 11 in. x 17 ft. 2 in., slightly smaller than the Findon and the Arundel. She was a collier having a 9 cylinder oil engine by British Polar Engines Limited of Glasgow and which produced 2,130bhp. She was a vessel of 1,600 gross tons and had four holds and four derricks.

	MV Rattray Head (later MV Angmering)

	MV Rattray Head (later MV Angmering)

In 1972 the Rattray Head was re-registered in the ownership of Christian Salvesan (Shipping) Limited of Leith (who had taken over A. F. Henry & MacGregor in 1964). The following year, she was bought by Stephenson Clarke Shipping Limited of Sunderland and re-named the Angmering, joining a fleet of other colliers/coasters with Sussex names.

	MV Angmering (formerly MV Rattray Head)

Craig J.M. Carter's book "Stephenson Clarke: a brief chronology and history of the ships owned and managed for associated companies" indicates that the Angmering during the winter of 1975 went aground during an Irish trip, three miles from her destination. This was on a grey bleak day at Black Rock Shoat in Galway Bay while on passage from Gdansk to the rugged coast of Galway carrying a load of coal. The date was 29th January 1975. The cargo of 2,400 tons of coal was successfully removed by the ex-Severn Estuary ferry, Severn Princess, but the Angmering was described as a "constructive total loss".

	MV Angmering (formerly MV Rattray Head)

Stephenson Clarke most probably named their vessels after Sussex locations because of their Powell Duffryn connections and coal shipments to the old Shoreham power station. In the early 1970s, the chairmain of Powell Duffryn was Charles St. G Stephenson Clarke who used to live at Broadhurst Manor, near Horsted Keynes. There were (and still are) many other vessels named after Sussex villages and towns, such as the Amberley, Ardingly, Ashington, Beeding, Bramber, Chailey, Climping, Cowdray, Durrington, Ferring, Firle, Henfield, Heyshott, Horsham, Hove, Maplehurst, Midhurst, Petworth, Portslade, Pulborough, Rogate, Seaford, Shoreham, Steyning, Storrington and Washington.

Neil Rogers-Davis

August 2003 (Updated April 2009)

(Thanks to Lloyd's Register of Shipping, Valerie Martin ("This is Findon" website) and David Ng for various aspects of this history, and to Charlie Hill of Swinefleet near Goole who has provided the photos via George Robinson from Cottingham, Hull, and Valerie Martin.)