Under the first
Dock Act, 1708, the Mayor, aldermen, bailiffs, and Common Council became the
trustees of the proposed docks in Liverpool, and were empowered to construct
the dock and to levy dues. By an Act of 1811, however, they were separately
incorporated and the finances of the docks were separately administered from
those of the corporation, by a statutory committee of twenty-one members
appointed by the trustees. The control of the docks by a corporation, which was
in no way representative of the ratepayers or of those who used the docks, led
to much discontent and discussion, and in the end produced a new Act, that of
1825, whereby, though the trust remained unaltered, the committee was changed
to include eight members elected by dock ratepayers. The council still retained
a majority, thirteen of the committee being councillors, while the chairman was
also selected from among the members of the committee by the council.
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View of Liverpool in the year 1813 |
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Salthouse Dock 1753 |
1. Old Dock,
opened 31 August 1715; closed 31 August 1826.
2. Salthouse
Dock, opened 1753; altered 1842; enlarged 1855.
3. George's
Dock, opened 1771; enlarged 1825; closed 1900.
4. King's Dock,
opened 1788; closed 1906, the name being preserved for two new branches of the
Wapping Dock.
5. Queen's Dock,
opened 1796; enlarged 1816; deepened and half-tide dock added 1856, and closed
1905; enlarged 1901; branches added 1901, 1905; altered 1906.
6. Union Dock,
opened 1816; thrown into Coburg Dock 1858.
7. Prince's
Dock, opened 1821; half-tide dock added 1868.
The total area
of wet docks in 1825 amounted to 46 acres 3,179 sq. yds, a little over 2 miles.
The dock dues paid in the same year amounted to £130,911. It is also worth
mentioning that the first London Dock was not opened until 1802.
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Canning Dock |
Period Two:
Between 1825 and 1857, when the docks were under the control of the Dock
Committee, the Old Dock was closed (1826), and the following new docks were
opened:—
1. Canning Dock,
opened 1829; previously a basin known as the Dry Dock, opened 1753; enlarged
1842.
2. Clarence
Docks, opened 1830; enlarged 1853.
3. Brunswick
Docks, opened 1832; enlarged 1848, 1858, 1889; branch dock added 1878; altered
1900.
4. Waterloo
Dock, opened 1834; reconstructed as E. and W. Waterloo Docks, 1868.
5. Victoria
Dock, opened 1836; altered 1848.
6. Trafalgar
Dock, opened 1836.
7. Coburg Dock,
opened 1840; altered from Brunswick Basin; enlarged 1858; altered 1900.
8. Toxteth Dock,
opened 1842; closed to make way for new works, 1884.
9. Canning
Half-tide Dock, opened 1844.
10. Harrington
Dock (bought), opened 1844; closed to make way for new works 1879.
11. Albert Dock,
opened 1845.
12. Salisbury
Dock, opened 1848.
13. Collingwood
Dock, opened 1848.
14. Stanley
Dock, opened 1848; partly filled in 1897.
15. Nelson Dock,
opened 1848.
16. Bramley
Moore Dock, opened 1848.
17. Wellington
Docks, opened 1850; half-tide dock closed 1901.
18. Sandon Dock,
opened 1851; half-tide dock added 1901; altered 1906.
19. Manchester
Dock (bought), opened 1851.
20. Huskisson
Dock, opened 1852; branch docks added 1861, 1872, 1902; altered 1896, 1897;
enlarged 1900.
21. Wapping Dock
and Basin, opened 1855; two King's Dock branches added 1906.
The water area
in 1857 amounted to 192 acres 129 sq. yds., or an increase of over 82 acres in
twenty-five years, about 15 miles. The river-wall, when the Dock Board came
into existence, already extended for just over 5 miles. At the same time the
Dock Committee and the Corporation had acquired the Birkenhead Docks, so it is
clear that the old Dock Committee did not lack energy. For the ten years
preceding the establishment of the Dock Board the dock dues averaged nearly
£250,000. It was on the security of these that the capital for the construction
of the docks was raised; and no profits were used for purposes other than the
service of the port.
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Langton, Brocklebank and Canada Docks |
Period
Three: During the fifty years of the
Mersey Docks and Harbour Board more time and money have been spent on the
enlargement and reconstruction of the existing system than on the creation of
new docks. The new docks of this period were:
1. Canada Dock,
opened 1858; enlarged 1896; altered 1903; branches opened 1896, 1903, 1906.
2. Brocklebank
Dock, opened 1862; known until 1879 as Canada Half-tide Dock; enlarged 1871.
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Herculaneum Docks |
3. Herculaneum
Dock, opened 1866; enlarged and branch dock added 1881.
4. Langton
Docks, opened 1879.
5. Alexandra
Dock (and three branches), opened 1880.
6. Harrington
Dock, opened 1883.
7. Hornby Dock
(and branch), opened 1884.
8. Toxteth Dock,
opened 1888.
9. Union Dock, opened
1889.
The new type of
gigantic steamships demanded a wholesale reconstruction of the docks which was
done. The docks were grouped in systems, each adapted to the needs of different
kinds of trade, and each equipped with its appropriate warehouses, sheds,
cranes and graving-docks. The southern system, including the Herculaneum,
Toxteth, and Harrington docks, was vastly enlarged between 1881 and 1888; the
Canada-Huskisson system, at the north end, was radically reconstructed between
1890 and 1906, with the result that the largest American liners could use it in
place of the Alexandra-Hornby system, which at the time of its construction
represented the last word in dock engineering. The Brunswick Wapping system, in
the south-central region, which includes some of the oldest of the docks, was
completely rearranged, enlarged, and deepened so as to admit the biggest
vessels, between 1900 and 1906. That accommodation, still being inadequate, a
large new system of docks was constructed in 1908 at the extreme north end of
the line.
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Georges Dock 1901, prior to the construction of the Liver Buildings. |
In 1900 the
George's Dock, one of the oldest of the series, which lay between the city and
the Pier Head, was closed by arrangement between the Dock Board and the
Corporation. Part of its site was utilised for the magnificent Liver building.
In addition to the docks controlled by the Dock Board, the London and
North-Western Railway had three docks at Garston, which had a water area of 14
acres 2,494 yds. The Docks were served by the Liverpool Overhead Railway which
ran the length of the dock system.
The Overhead Railway Princes Dock |

The
interconnected dock system was the most advanced port system in the world. The
docks enabled ship movements within the dock system 24 hours a day, isolated from
the high River Mersey tides. Parts of the system are now a World Heritage Site.
From 1885 the dock system was the hub of a hydraulic power network that
stretched beyond the docks. Sadly, with the advent of containerisation most of
the smaller south end docks were closed in 1971 with Brunswick Dock remaining
until closure in 1975. Many docks have been filled in to create land for
buildings at the Pier Head, and now an arena at Kings Dock, commercial estates
at Toxteth and Harrington Docks and housing at Herculaneum Dock. In the north,
some branch docks have been filled in and Sandon and Wellington Docks have been
filled in and are now the location of a sewage works. Most of Hornby Dock was
filled in to allow Gladstone Dock's coal terminal to expand. However, the
largest dock on the dock network, Seaforth Dock, was opened in 1972 and deals
with grain and containers, accommodating what were the largest containers ships
at that time.
Footage of Liverpool Pier Head, docks,
Council film from 1941
Sources
British History
Online
Liverpool
Central Library
Liverpool
Records Office
Wikipedia
British Museum
National
Archives
By Robert F
Edwards