User:Paebaker/sandbox

Swatchway A generic term that it is 'a channel navigable at most states of the tide between shoals banks of mud, shingle or sand which may move from time to time as a result of the migration of those banks caused by the effects of tide and storm'

In the early 19th century the term used was Swashways - as in 'Between these are swashways, of 2 and 3 feet water.' Curiously that particular reference was not a reference to 'navigable channel' as such. 'Channel' can be a very loose term nowadays. For example, the channel that used to be the Ray Sand doesn't exist but the term is still used to describe what is a half tide route in the same place where the sand is perhaps 'less high' than further along. Maurice Griffiths used the term in his book 'The Magic of the Swatchways', first published in 1932 but around the same time Alker Tripp avoided the term and called his book 'Shoal Waters and Fairways. I think Swatchway will have been a 20th century word derived from Swashway which I would guess takes its meaning from something like a sand bank being awash. The only use around the Estuary at the moment as an official name that I can think of is the Nore Swatchway with two buoys named Nore Swatch and Mid Swatch. That is a channel between the Grain Sand (west of the entrance to the Medway) and the Nore Sand. It is simply shown as 'Swatchway' but is widely known as the Nore Swatchway. There may be others but I can't think of them at the moment. Other Swatchways are known officially as 'channel, Gat, Gatway or in old English Gateway - or oh yes Sledway up to the North of Harwich.