Scale: 1:24. A contemporary full hull model of the 'Bedford' (1904), a Thames sailing barge. The model is decked, fully equipped and rigged, with sails set. The hull is inscribed ‘Bedford’ on port and starboard bows and ‘Bedford London Eastwood & Co Ltd’ on stern.

Built at Milton on the river Medway in 1905, the ‘Bedford’ measured 73 feet in length by 17 feet 6 inches in the beam and was one of the smaller river barges rigged with a staysail in addition to the normal sprit rig. It primarily traded between the Colne Point in Essex to the North Foreland, and was largely employed in transporting bricks manufactured in Kent to quays along the Thames. The ‘Bedford’ could carry 45,000 bricks or 163 cubic yards of sand with the return trip of coal, coke and rubbish. After over 40 years of trading it became a houseboat and finally abandoned as a hulk at Hoo, Kent. The model was made by the foreman shipwright who built the ‘Bedford’ at Milton in 1904.