Preston Dock is a former maritime dock on the northern bank of the River Ribble, west of Preston, Lancashire, England. The Albert Edward Basin opened in 1892 and is connected to the river by a series of locks.
The dock is from the Irish Sea and provided a port for shipping until its closure in 1981. Most of the historic buildings and facilities have since been demolished and the area is now mainly commercial and residential property, along with some light industry. Following the dock's closure, a public marina opened in 1987.
History Prehistory The prehistory of the lands around what is now the Preston Docks, and the use of the River Ribble as a waterway dates back many thousands of years. Excavation for the docks in the 1880s uncovered neolithic artefacts around 6,000 to 10,000 years old, some of which can be viewed in Preston's Harris Museum.
Pre–Industrial Revolution Historical evidence shows that the Ribble played a role by ancient and pre-medieval cultures in their conquest of Britain, with artefacts of Saxon, Roman and Viking origin recovered from the lands surrounding the river banks.
Records from medieval times show that Preston was already a trading port by the 12th century when a portmote (a type of court) would meet at regular intervals to give judgement on matters relating to the operation of the port, and increasing trade through the port was recorded from around the mid-14th century. Even in these early times, the Ribble suffered from silt deposits, and the first recorded instance of the river being dredged to improve passage dates to the 16th century.
18th century The Industrial Revolution saw a boom in the textile industry in Lancashire and Preston was no exception; by the end of 18th century around a dozen large textile mills had sprung up across the town. Textiles were not Preston's only industry; the abolition of the town's royal charter in 1790 as a Guild Town permitted freedom of trade, and other manufacturing industries quickly began to emerge. New markets were soon found for these goods, with many being shipped to overseas destinations. There was also an ever-increasing influx of timber, coal and cotton for the town's mills and factories, food for its growing population, and later, wood pulp for the paper mills at the near-by town of Darwen.
Ships would come up-river to Preston to unload and shelter in a natural basin known in its time as 'Preston Anchorage', where the Moorbrook joined the Ribble, where the town's original docks were located. However, by the last decade of the 18th century the town's wharf facilities were already struggling to keep up with demand, with the shallowness of the river limiting ships - particularly larger ones- to around the time of high tides, and by loading and unloading facilities and storage warehouses built on marshlands surrounding the river banks which were prone to flooding.
19th century
In the early 1800s the Preston Consortium was founded to propose ways in which the river could be better used to facilitate trade. Along with representation from the town council (which retained 30% ownership of the corporation), it included some of Preston's largest private companies. This led to the creation of the first Ribble Navigation Company by the (46 Geo. 3. c. cxxi), whose primary purpose was to commence a program of land reclamation and fixing the course of the river within training walls built along its banks. Construction of a new wharf commenced a few years later further downstream along the section of the river where Marsh Lane joined Strand Road.
The new wharves, known as the New Quays (later renamed to Victoria Quay), opened in 1825. According to the Ordnance Survey map of 1849, "vessels of 300 tons" could navigate to this point. Ordnance Survey 6" England & Wales, Lancashire Sheet LXI, Surveyed: 1844 to 1847, Published: 1849 Construction commenced on supporting infrastructure with the Victoria Bonded Warehouse off Strand Road opening in 1843 and a number of shipyards built along the banks of the river. In 1846 a branch line was opened from Preston Railway Station to what was now Victoria Quay to provide a direct rail link to the docks.
The shallowness of the river was still an issue and in 1837 the engineer Robert Stevenson was commissioned by the corporation to develop plan to merge the river's multiple channels together into a single course and making it deep enough to be safely navigable by larger vessels. As a result, a channel, the Gut, was dredged in the river up to its estuary at Lytham. The second Ribble Navigation Company was created in 1838 and lasted until 1853, followed by the third company in 1853 which lasted until 1883. Both of these companies continued the work of the first, dredging and fixing the course of the river and by 1880 around of land along the surrounding banks had been reclaimed. The third company was bestowed with more power for land reclamation not only for the docks but also to benefit Preston overall, and created around of new farmland from the former tidal stretches and mudflats.
However, even with the new deeper navigation channel there was still an ongoing issue of the river's shallowness which not only limited vessels' journeys but also restricted the mooring of increasingly larger vessels to the new Victoria Quays (which, by 1860, had only been in operation for 35 years) and in 1861 the Preston Consortium discussed a proposal to locate the docks away from the river in deeper water with a constant level maintained by a series of locks. Nothing came from this proposal until 1882 when the corporation voted to adopt this as their strategy for their town's future port. Parliament passed the (46 & 47 Vict. c. cxv) to allow construction of the new docks. In September 1884 the contract for the construction work was awarded to Thomas Andrew Walker, and construction began with the diversion of the River Ribble and the excavation of the new basin, with the first sod being turned on 11 October 1884. On 17 July 1885 the dock's foundation stone was laid by Queen Victoria's eldest son, Albert Edward the Prince of Wales, after whom the basin is named.
The dock was officially opened on 25 June 1892 by Alfred, the Prince of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria's second eldest son, and the new Port of Preston commenced operations. The first ship to enter the lock and use the new docks was the steam yacht Aline, carrying the royal party for the opening ceremony. There are contrary records as to what was the commercial vessel to use the new docks, with some saying it was SS Lady Louise, chartered by the Lancashire firm EH Booth and Co Ltd, and which carried an inbound load of cargo, while others say it was the Hebe, which unloaded a cargo of cement. However, what is not disputed is the fanfare that accompanied the opening of the docks, with over 10,000 members of the public in attendance and a "flotilla" of small boats and pleasure craft on the Ribble.
20th century
From its slow beginnings the docks experienced a steady growth in trade in the early decades of the 20th century. With the outbreak of the First World War the docks took on a new role, exporting munitions produced by local factories that had been retooled for the war effort. After the cessation of hostilities the port experienced a downturn in trade from which it never fully recovered in the inter-war period. In the 1920s the rail line from the site of the old Victory Quay was extended along both side of the docks, allowing an increase in the volume of goods transiting to and from the port.
During the Second World War the docks again aided Britain's war effort, when it was taken over by the military and used as a marshalling post for the D-Day landings in Normandy, 1944. During the course of the war the docks had to be closed twice due to naval mines. In the years after the Second World War, the volume of goods passing in and out of the port increased, aided by a ferry service to Northern Ireland commencing in 1948. Traffic increased even further until a peak in the 1960s, but warning signs for its future were beginning to appear. Ferry services ceased by the early 1970s, and although containerised cargo meant ships could be loaded and unloaded more quickly, economies of scale meant container vessels increased in size, and the age-old problem of the shallowness of the Ribble took greater significance; constant dredging operations were now costing around half of the port's annual income.
The period 1960–1972 was the busiest in the dock's history but from then it experienced a continued and noticeable fall in revenue brought about from a reduction in trade and the cost of dredging required to keep the port open, and in 1981 an Act of Parliament was passed to close the docks. On 22 October 1981 the last Preston-based ship, the dredger Hoveringham V left the docks and on 31 October, the port's last official day of operation, the Singapore-based MV Sea Rhine became the final vessel to leave the docks, thus signalling the closure of the Port of Preston.
Post-redevelopment Following redevelopment of the former Preston Dock, greater emphasis has been placed upon the role that Riversway and the Albert Edward Basin play in the community's leisure and lifestyle, and the area has hosted several significant events:
During the 2012 Preston Guild celebrations, held every 20 years and unique within Great Britain, Riversway played an important role, especially with the year's Riversway Festival when more than 60 guest boats entered the basin. The Royal Navy patrol boat , a semi-regular visitor to the city, was formally adopted by Preston, allowing the vessel and its crew to "officially" participate in the celebrations. The Riversway Festival (formerly the Preston Maritime Festival) was an annual summer event first held in the 1992 Preston Guild to celebrate the city's maritime heritage. Various activities are held on the basin, including a dragon boat regatta, a dinghy "grand prix", displays by the Sea Cadets and brightly decorated guest vessels including narrowboats from the Lancaster Canal. Following the 2012 festival the council cancelled funding for the event due to budget cuts and the 2013 festival, which only went ahead due to the efforts of volunteers, was the last occurrence of this event. There have been subsequent discussions to resurrect the festival but no outcome has been forthcoming. The Ribble Steam Railway, which has operated on former docklands railway facilities since 2005, hosts weekend steam train excursions which have proven popular with locals and tourists. Around 2010, the company proposed the construction of a new station at the Strand Road level crossing to attract more tourists (given its close proximity to Preston station), and possibly extend their line westward out to the Ribble Link. Preliminary approval was granted by the council but plans appear to have fallen through due to lack of funding. However, the company is continuing expanding its facilities with the construction of a "Railway Exploration Centre". In 2019 a community volunteer group CLEARED (Community Led Action to Revitalise the Dock) has been formed to clean up the docks and the waters of the basin, and in particular, to address the issue of blue-green algae (cyanobacteria).
Albert Edward Basin and Dock
The Albert Edward Basin is long by wide and covers an area of around , and provided over of quayside for loading and unloading vessels. At it opening in 1892 it was the largest: single dock; and inland dock; and enclosed dock in Europe.