Former HMS Ganges Royal Navy training mast restoration begins

The mast will be restored and returned to Shotley Gate where there are plans for almost 300 homes

A historic Grade II listed former Royal Navy training mast is being taken down so restoration work can get under way.

HMS Ganges in Shotley Gate, Suffolk, was a training centre for recruits between 1905 and 1976.

Developers Wavensmere Homes and Galliard Homes plan to build almost 300 homes on the site and include a restored mast in the development.

Derek Davis, Babergh District councillor for the area, said it would take "at least a year" to restore.

The independent said: "It takes a long time for it be restored properly, they are bit reluctant to put it back while there is construction going on around it.

"The actual bottom part will stay because it's buried six foot into the concrete but that's a good foundation for when the restored mast comes back."

The HMS Ganges Museum said restorers will remove the wooden part of the mast for refurbishment off site and they will then check the condition of the steel lower mast.

The Royal Navy training mast in Shotley, picture here in 1936, was erected in 1907

HMS Ganges was the name given to several Royal Navy ships since from 1779, but in 1905 it was chosen for a new training base at Shotley Gate, near Ipswich, where about 500 boy recruits were stationed.

In 1907, its famous 143ft (44m)-high training mast was erected on the parade ground for recruits to climb.

Recruit numbers rose to 2,000 during World War Two, but dropped to about 1,000 by the late 1960s and declined further until the base closed for good in June 1976.

John Noakes gets ready for his 1967 ascent of the mast

In 1967, the then Blue Peter presenter John Noakes made his ascent of the mast for the BBC's programme in an attempt to emulate the "button boy" who would reach the very top of the mast and stand hands-free with only a supporting bar between his legs.