The first landing stage at Wartham was built as if the creek had finished arranging itself. Its stout posts stood beside the deepest approach, and a timber stair descended neatly from the bank. Within a few seasons, the useful water lay farther out. The structure remained sound and became progressively less convenient.
Repairing it would not answer the problem. The local carriers needed a place where a loaded boat could come alongside, rather than an improved staircase overlooking mud. Builder Martha Keld proposed a shorter fixed platform connected to a floating end by a hinged gangway. The floating section could be shifted when the channel moved again.
Its first position was agreed after several evenings of observation. Keld watched the carriers arrive at different tides and asked where they actually placed their boats. The resulting plan was less symmetrical than the original stage. It also provided a dry place to stand while a crate passed from one pair of hands to another.
Moving the floating end required work, but the work could be anticipated. Chains were marked, spare lengths were kept nearby and the annual account included an allowance for repositioning. What had previously appeared as an expensive failure became an ordinary maintenance item, entered beside replacement boards and new bolts.
The stage's history is therefore difficult to illustrate with a single definitive plan. Its most important feature was the connection between sections, not one settled outline. Wartham kept a landing place by building an object that could remain useful without remaining precisely where its makers had first put it.