HMS Ganges Royal Navy training site mast set for May return

The Royal Navy training mast in Shotley Gate, pictured in 1936, was erected in 1907

Restoration work on a historic Grade II listed former Royal Navy training mast should be completed by May, a museum trustee has said.

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

Barry Scott-Webb, from HMS Ganges Museum, said it would be "exactly the same as it was" and the work was being carried out in "the old fashioned way".

The mast, put up in 1907, was taken down in June.

Barry Scott-Webb said the "iconic mast" was visible from the sea and helped guide sailors

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

A photograph of the base taken sometime in the 1950s (left), with recruits on the mast in 1937, with one recruit just about visible near the very top

Recruits used to climb the 143ft (44m) high mast in formation, with the "button boy" standing on a small, circular platform at the very top, hands-free, but with his legs resting against a metal supporting bar.

BBC Blue Peter presenter John Noakes famously attempted to climb to the top of the mast in 1967.

Mr Scott-Webb, who trained at HMS Ganges from 1961 to 1962, said the complete hand-restoration of the mast was progressing and "it's going to be finished pretty soon, by about May".

"It will be exactly the same as it was when it was first laid in 1907," he said.

Old skills were being used on the restoration of the mast

The people working on it carried out rigging repairs on the Cutty Sark, the Greenwich clipper, and were "turning square wood into round", he added.

"It's all done the old fashioned way; there's no sander," he said.

"All together, it's going to have about 16 coats of protective paint."

Several layers of paint will be used to protect the wooden structure

HMS Ganges was the name given to several Royal Navy ships from 1779 onwards, 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 training mast was erected on the parade ground.

The mast was removed in June