Harrington Dock, Liverpool
Part of Liverpool Docks
The first dock on the site was known as Egerton Dock, named after the Dukes of Bridgewater, built between 1837-9. The first dock was small, with a 20 ft (6.1 m)-wide entrance, and intended for river and canal boats moving timber.
In 1839, Jesse Hartley and his son were employed by a separate private company to design two further small basins on the site, known as Harrington Dock and Harrington Dry Basin. The name of the dock can be traced to the district of Harrington, intended for a planned overflow town for Liverpool which never came to fruition. The district of Harrington, itself, was named in honour of Lady Isabella Stanhope, daughter of William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington and wife of Charles Molyneux, 1st Earl of Sefton who owned the former Royal Forest of Toxteth Park.
The dock was bought and opened in 1844, although not commercially successful.
By 1858, the dock primarily traded with the west coast of South America.
The land was eventually acquired by the Liverpool Dock Trust. Harrington Dock was enlarged by George Fosbery Lyster between 1875-83 and the new Harrington Dock was opened in 1882.
A tunnel from the Garston and Liverpool Railway emerged at the dock, and the second Herculaneum Dock railway station of the Liverpool Overhead Railway was adjacent to the dock from 1896. The dock was further improved in 1898, by widening the entrances and deepening the dock. Harrington Dock was used by the Elder Dempster Lines and its associated businesses.
The dock closed in 1972 and has since been filled in. Most of the dock buildings still exist and are divided into small business units as part of Brunswick Business Park.
1837 Report
IMPROVEMENTS AT THE SOUTH SHORE.— We last week brought before our readers a notice of the splendid works now in the course of execution by the Harrington Dock Company. Any person who recollects the South Shore twenty years ago, when Jackson's Dam* was in full operation, and when a walk to the Herculaneum Pottery was considered a walk into the country, cannot fail being struck with the marvellous change it presents at this period, when it is almost joined to the town, and must, in the course of a very short time, be occupied by the ships of the merchant, or the cranes of the wharfinger. To the southward of the land purchased by the Harrington Dock Company stands the Herculaneum Pottery, the Mersey Steel and Iron Works, and a great extent of strand running up to the rocks of Knotts-hole. The estate, formerly in the possession of Mr. Holland, the pottery itself, and the strand for almost three-quarters of a mile in extent, have been purchased from the Earl of Sefton and others by a few individuals, Messrs. Lace, Tomkinson, and Holme, who are opening the whole for the purposes of commerce. The strand is being enclosed by a wall of solid masonry; a landing-slip, equal to that at the pierhead, has been already constructed, to which steam vessels from the opposite ferries are intended to ply. A Graving Dock, of the size of No. 1, is in the course of formation, and immense cuttings are in progress, for the purpose of levelling the upper land and filling up the strand. A large quarry is opened on the ground, out of which huge blocks of stone are raised for the purpose of enclosing the strand. Waggons, loaded with earth, are running to and fro upon temporary lines of railway, and vast numbers of labourers and masons seem constantly employed. Wharfs, depots, shipwrights' yards, accommodation for boiler-makers, and all the multifarious demands of that class of skilful artisans, seem rapidly forming; and looking from the extreme north boundary of the Harrington Dock Company's property, to the south of that belonging to Messrs. Lace and Co., we should think there is here alone space enough for the wants of any second-rate seaport. Sefton-street is being opened throughout, almost to the Dingle; and, instead of the crooked and impassable road that has been for years, it is now to be twenty yards wide throughout, and the same level which it has at the Brunswick Dock is to be continued along the whole line of the works. The Earl of Sefton, also, has a great number of men employed in opening Harrington-street and Grafton-street, and connecting them with the new line of Sefton-street: thus opening his splendid property for the purposes of business.—Courier.’[1]
- Jackson's Dam served a tidal corn mill.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Liverpool Albion - Monday 15 May 1837