Ports & Harbours of the North Sea

History

Grimsby's development as a landing place and town has an underlying basis in the area's geography – the combination of relatively high ground (compared to surrounding land) of over 16 feet (5 m), near to the Humber, and close to a water outfall (The Haven).

Grimsby has been documented as a landing place dating to at least the Viking Age. According to 19th century writers Grimsby was referenced in medieval histories as the landing place of marauding Danish armies. The haven is also reputed to be the landing place of the semi-legendary figures Grim and Havelok in the town's founding myth, Havelok the Dane (written c. 13th century).

History

From the mid 19th century onwards the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway developed the Port of Grimsby into a modern outlet for its rail system onto the east coast of England.

In 1874 a report was commissioned from Charles Liddell on alternatives to expansion at Grimsby – it recommended a new dock west of Grimsby at South Killingholme, preferable due to low land costs and proximity to the Humber Estuary's navigable channel. Liddell's scheme was not proceeded with at that time.

Plans were submitted to Parliament in 1902 for a dock near Immingham, but the bill was withdrawn due to conditions requiring the GCR to dredge the Humber shipping channels to undo any change thought to have been caused by the dock works.

History

The harbour was formed by the filling in of the water around the former islands of Keith Inch and Greenhill. When Peterhead was founded, in 1593, it was known as the "Harbour and Barony of Keith Insche commonly called Peterhead".

The harbour was proving so valuable that in 1738, the Leith shipmasters attested that "the harbour of Peterhead is in our opinion the best situate of any place in Scotland for all ships trading on the north seas".

In 1815, before the increase in herring popularity, there were 72 vessels registered to Peterhead operating from the port; by 1850 there were over 400.

North Harbour and the dry dock were built by John Rennie and Thomas Telford between 1818 and 1822. They were improved fifteen years later.

History

No. 1 dock was built by Cunningham, Blythe and Westland and completed May 1887. No.2 dock was completed in January 1900 and No. 3 dock was built by Sir Robert McAlpine and completed in 1913. No.3 dock closed in 1977. Plans in the early 2000s to convert the area into a network of restaurants and social space fell through due to a lack of funds. The project, provisionally named Methil Ramblas, would have included al fresco dining, cafes, and open-air fitness sessions.

History

Whilst the location of Goole as a settlement has been around since Anglo-Saxon times, the land surrounding the area of Goole was marshy, and only drained when King Charles I granted Cornelius Vermuyden the right to drain the land and divert the River Don into the Ouse, rather than the Trent. The River Don had hitherto drained eastwards directly into the Trent at Adlingfleet. Prior to the diversion of the River Don (which became known as the Dutch River), and the opening of the Aire and Calder Navigation, Goole itself was a tiny hamlet, on the south bank of the River Ouse. In 1821, five years before the port was opened, the population of Goole was listed as 450; by 1831, it had increased threefold to 1,671. By 1901, the town had grown to 4,549 residents.

Geography

The port is connected at the west end to the Aire and Calder Navigation, with the Dutch River (the new course of the River Don) immediately to the south of the canal, and they run alongside each other to the west for 6 miles (9.7 km). Initially, the port only had two locks; Barge Lock (3 acres (1.2 ha)) controlled entry into the River Ouse, and Ship Lock (2.75 acres (1.11 ha)) was a little further north, connected to the canal end of Barge Dock. Despite the small size of both locks, they could hold about 60 ships and 200 barges, and the nascent port was known to be quite efficient at the transshipment of goods. A timber pond was built on the western approach to the dock on the Aire and Calder Navigation, but this was later developed into South Dock.

History

The harbour was originally built by the Lowestoft and Norwich Navigation Company and developed by the Norfolk Railway following the construction of the Norwich to Lowestoft railway. The original Inner Harbour was constructed in 1831 when Lake Lothing was joined to the sea, as shown on a chart based on a survey by William Hewett of HMS Fairy dated 1834, while the Outer Harbour was constructed in 1937. The railway line ran along the north side of the docks and a series of docks railway sidings were used mainly for fishing and freight wagons. These lines have mainly been removed from service but in places sections of the track can be seen.

History

No records exist of actual dates when the port started, but fish were being landed at Whitby during the time that the first abbey had been built in 657. It is thought that the port was in what is now the upper harbour (south of the swing bridge, as coastal erosion had not yet subjected the lower harbour cliff walls to collapse, making that side of the estuary too steep to house piers). William de Percy granted the port to the abbey at Whitby, a grant which was confirmed by William II sometime before 1096. In 1122, a dispute was recorded in the collection of tithes from fishermen due to the abbot, which also noted that coal was imported into Whitby.

History

The construction of Ramsgate Harbour began in 1749, and was completed in about 1850. The two most influential architects of the harbour were father and son John Shaw and John Shaw Jr, who designed the clock house, the obelisk, the lighthouse and the Jacob's Ladder steps.

The harbour has the unique distinction of being the only harbour in the United Kingdom awarded the right to call itself a Royal Harbour. This was bestowed by King George IV after he was taken by the hospitality shown by the people of Ramsgate when he used the harbour to depart and return with the Royal Yacht Squadron in 1821. In 2024 the harbour was designated a Heritage Harbour.

History

The Great Eastern Railway, which was formed from the merging of the Eastern Counties Railway and the Eastern Union Railway in 1862, operated passenger steamers across the North Sea from Harwich to continental Europe. By 1872, shipping trade had increased so that more capacity was required and the Great Eastern Railway obtained permission to reclaim land at Ray Farm, a mile to the west of Harwich, and build a new quay. This new quay was opened in 1883 by Charles H. Parkes, the chairman of the Great Eastern Railway company, the port being named after him as Parkeston Quay. The port had its own railway station, and a hotel was built between the northern platform and the quay; the hotel building is now used as offices.

Current operations

The main user of the port is the regular ferry services of Stena Line who run twice daily passenger and freight services to the Hook of Holland; as well as freight only services to Rotterdam Europort. The main vessels serving the port are the RoPax ferries the Stena Hollandica and the Stena Britannica, and the RoRo ferries.

Previously, DFDS Seaways operated services to Esbjerg, Denmark (ceased 29 September 2014), Cuxhaven (and before that to Hamburg), Germany, and Gothenburg, Sweden; the latter two services were discontinued by 2005.

Cruise ships once called regularly at the port during the summer months, although in recent times these calls have become more and more infrequent. The year 2016 saw 12 visits – the lowest since the service started.

Facilities

There are four ro-ro berths with linkspans. The specialised pier for the High Speed Ferry Discovery is disused now that the high-speed ferry service has been discontinued and its linkspan has been removed. There are extensive railway sidings adjacent to and within the port with 40 acres (16 hectares) of standing for cars including electric vehicle charging points. In total, there are over 105 acres (42 hectares) of operational land with parking for over 1,000 trailers.

History

The original docks of London, all built close to the City, were opened in stages by what were to become the East and West India Dock Company (E&WIDC) and the London and Saint Katharine Docks Company (L&StKDC) at the beginning of the 19th century. With the coming of the railways and increasing ship size, proximity to the centre of London became less important than access to deep water, unrestricted sites, and reduction in time spent traveling up the winding Thames.

The E&WIDC had long been in competition with its rival, the L&StKDC. The opening of the Royal Albert Dock by the L&StKDC, with its deepwater quayage, in 1880 had given access to the Thames at Gallions Reach, 11 miles (18 km) by river below London Bridge and downstream of the then principal London docks.

Geography

The Port of Tilbury lies on the north shore of the River Thames, 25 miles (40 km) downstream of London Bridge, at a point where the river makes a loop southwards, and where its width narrows to 800 yards (730 m). The loop is part of the Thames lower reaches: within the meander was a huge area of marshland. Gravesend on the opposite shore had long been a port of entry for shipping, all of which had used the river itself for loading and unloading of cargo and passengers. There was also a naval dockyard at Northfleet at the mouth of the Ebbsfleet River. The new deep-water docks were an extension of all that maritime activity.

History

Wisbech was an Anglo-Saxon port on The Wash and continued to serve as a port in medieval times. After the estuary of the River Ouse became silted up, it was diverted into the sea at King's Lynn. This led to the construction of the present course of the River Nene from Peterborough to the Wash. The drained marshes provided rich productive farmland, bringing prosperity to the port of Wisbech from the regular shipments of corn and oil seed rape to the coast and continent, and imports which included coal from the North, slate from Wales and timber from the Baltic. Woad (Isatis tinctoria) was shipped out from the port.

History

For centuries Dunbar has been a port, although the harbour was originally situated at Belhaven, which lies to the west of Dunbar. The first known reference to this port is in an 1153 grant to the monks of May, at the formation of the Isle of May Priory, of a homestead "near my port of Bele" given by Gospatric III, Earl of Lothian. It is referenced again in a 1369/70 grant by David II of Scotland to George Dunbar, 10th Earl of March of "a free Dunbar... and a free port at the Bellehaven... with free entry and exit of ships". Belhaven continued in use up to the 19th-century; its site is thought to be on land now reclaimed by the C19 construction of a sea-wall running east–west between Belhaven village and Biel Water.

Description

The port has two main container terminals, Trinity and Landguard, as well as a roll-on/roll-off terminal.

There is a continuous quay of over 2.3 kilometres (1.4 miles), equipped with 29 ship-to shore gantry cranes. The main navigation channel is dredged to 14.5 m (48 ft) below chart datum, with a maximum depth of 15 m (49 ft) alongside the quay. This allows Felixstowe to accommodate the world's latest generation of deep-draughted post-Panamax vessels and the much larger Maersk Triple E class, launched in 2013 and capable of carrying 18,000 TEUs.

The A14 connects the port to the English Midlands and the M6, the north via the M1 and M6 and A1 and via the A12 to London. The port (as simply "Felixstowe") is signed from as far away as M6 junction 1 for Rugby.