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Can I go back to 14a then! Which I had as STHE, being the aforementioned crews backwards with two letters removed, and wordplay ‘small article’ seems good. But you’re both saying it starts with an E? To fit well known epic journey into 1d.

Lumen, think small article in reverse. The result (forwards) is crews minus 2 letters. The four you have just need putting in the right order.

I mean right direction rather than order.

Was your northern wharf a Staith?

Yup. The one I used to take pics of was Dunston near the High Level bridge.

Dunston Staiths look amazing! I would have seen them probably - as first was on Tyneside in 1970s.
But still can’t parse a solution for 35a.

The whole area was pretty much abandoned back then. We used to roam around (probably illegally) doing gritty, grainy b&w photos of empty buildings full of water, old machinery etc. Wish I still had the negatives.
Re parsing...if you ????? your car it stops (embarrassingly) + most of this (anag).

I thought 23d would end Mar or May (month) but this would end in H.

That's where I started but an earier post put me back on track. 3 letter abbrev of month, 2 of those being additional to the actual answer.

I’ve pretty much cracked this now, got the theme etc late last night. Thanks for the help everyone.
Can I have a steer on 27a? Asian tree in general knowledge primarily as source of wood.
Also, I’m confused by the fish in 5d....I assumed they were the little flesh eating ones and that Pi was a removed pair, but pi is not needed for the thematic names?