Decay and ruin have had a bad press. 

They can be fascinating, as visitors to the Purton Ships’ Graveyard by the River Severn in Gloucestershire have attested to, with one describing the site – home to the weathered skeletons of abandoned ships from the previous century – as possessing an ‘eerie beauty’.

Pictures here show some of the 86 steel barges, concrete ships, and wooden cargo boats that were deliberately beached on the bank of the river to help prevent