The boatyards and community on Eel Pie Island have successfully raised £6,000 in a bid to win protection against developers and gain heritage status.

The Eel Pie Island Association (EPIA) raised the cash as part of a campaign, which involved a photoshoot of supporters, in just one weekend.

The group will use the money for an enhanced and fast track application to Historic England to gain Heritage Asset Status for the boatyards on Eel Pie Island.

Eel Pie Island's Boatyards are part of the rich heritage and culture of the Thames at Twickenham and the local community.

The association said: "We wish to protect Twickenham's working waterfront which gives the area it's character and provides employment."

The group said many hundreds of boatyards once existed along the tidal shores of the Thames between Wapping and Teddington Lock. Today less than twenty remain along that same stretch of river.

Nine of these are in the Borough of Richmond, including the Eel Pie Island sites which currently house four separate businesses.

They said: "The threat of re-development for residential use is ever present."

The essential infrastructure of slipways, hardstanding, docks and wharfs are what makes the boatyards viable. They provide river related industry in the heart of Twickenham and create an ever-changing vibrant visual environment for the public.

The EPIA said current planning guidance offers a degree of protection, but these sites need heritage status to ensure they remain active and functional for future generations.

The group's goals are to –

• Protect current riparian knowledge and skills to run a boatyard and maintain craft on the river from large trip boats and barge conversions to recreational craft.

• Develop apprenticeships schemes to keep an able workforce of boat builders, boat operators, marine engineers.

• Protect the existing community of creative people painters, potters, glass artists, sculptors, designers and their studio and workshop spaces nestled in around the working boatyards.

• Promoting small start-up businesses and a self-employed workforce.

• Develop innovative initiatives for River transport due to climate change.

• Inform potential developers that the local community is committed to keep employment land over residential land.

• Keep the vibrant and rich culture of Eel Pie Island and all the activities on the Island thriving, adapt and grow together as a community.

The association thanked supporters for raising the £6,000 so quickly.

They said: "We are now able to go for an enhanced application to Historic England to get Heritage Asset Status for the infrastructure underpinning the boatyards on Eel Pie Island their slipways, wharves and dry-dock."