A multi-millionaire collector of Second World War memorabilia has launched a bid to build a new home for historic vessels in Devon.
Kevin Wheatcroft said he wanted to construct a facility for boats at the historic Richmond Dock in the village of Appledore. Some residents have opposed the plans and Northam Town Council has voted against the project, though the ultimate decision will be made by the planning committee of Torridge District Council.
If built, the facility would be able to house boats including the S130, which is the last remaining German wartime boat of its kind. Critics claim the plans would disrupt the Grade II listed dry dock as an important community asset, which they say should be available to all.
Mr Wheatcroft is the owner of the Wheatcroft Collection, which comprises around 200 items from the Second World War, including tanks and other military vehicles.
The collection is thought to be the largest military vehicle assortment in the world. Mr Wheatcroft is a motorsport entrepreneur and the executive chairman or Donington Park racing, while his net worth was estimated at £132 million by The Sunday Times Rich List in 2020.
He said the new dry dock would also house a 1901 steam launch, a Royal Navy launch and one of the little ships from the May 1940 Dunkirk rescue operation. These would stand alongside the S130, which is the last surviving example of a German schnellboot from the war, and was being restored in Cornwall.
It was used as a torpedo boat and was involved in an April 1944 attack off the south Devon coast in which 800 people died.
Mr Wheatcroft said: “History is about the good, the bad and the ugly so it is what it is. These things deserve to be preserved – I’m not preserving what they stood for, it’s more about the object as a historical craft.”
He added that he intended to open the site to the public on “high days and holidays”, and he wanted to maintain a “Victorian feel” at the dock with a “modern structure” to protect the boats.
He continued: “It will enhance the centre of the village as well as bringing in employment both full-time and part-time.”
Originally built in 1856, it was said to be the largest dry dock in the Bristol Channel, according to Historic England.
The shipbuilding industry in the area developed from the timber trade which came from North America in the early 1800s.
Ships were originally constructed on Prince Edward Island in Canada and sailed to the Torridge estuary for fitting out, until shipbuilder William Yeo built the dry dock.
While it was used for constructing wooden minesweepers and motor torpedo boats during the Second World War, it was been derelict for around 40 years and was listed in 1987.
A previous attempt to build flats on the plot was rejected in 2005, before Mr Wheatcroft bought it in October 2020.
Kym Harris, an Appledore resident whose grandfather and other relatives worked at Richmond Dock, told BBC News she was opposed to the plans.
She said: “By covering the dry dock with a shelter or shed it’s almost erasing it from this area of the village. It’s almost like it didn’t exist and those people of the village who we want to remember and our history that we want to remember, is gone.”
The site is important to local people, she added, and it was a shame it had “been allowed to get into such an awful state”.
Richmond Dock’s planning application will be considered by Torridge District Council on a date yet to be decided.