Port of Runcorn
Encyclopedia
Runcorn
Runcorn is an industrial town and cargo port within the borough of Halton in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. In 2009, its population was estimated to be 61,500. The town is on the southern bank of the River Mersey where the estuary narrows to form Runcorn Gap. Directly to the north...
, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...
, England. It is situated to the west of a point where the River Mersey
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....
narrows, known as Runcorn Gap. Originally opening directly into the Mersey, with the building of the Manchester Ship Canal
Manchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
, it now links with this canal.
Early days
Until the 18th century, the major port in northwest England was ChesterChester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
. However silt
Silt
Silt is granular material of a size somewhere between sand and clay whose mineral origin is quartz and feldspar. Silt may occur as a soil or as suspended sediment in a surface water body...
ing of the River Dee
River Dee, Wales
The River Dee is a long river in the United Kingdom. It travels through Wales and England and also forms part of the border between the two countries....
prevented access to Chester and in 1708 Thomas Steers
Thomas Steers
Thomas Steers was thought to have been born in 1672 in Kent and died in 1750. He was England's first major civil engineer and built many canals, the world's first commercial wet dock, the Old Dock at Liverpool, and a theatre...
was commissioned to build the first wet dock in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
. By 1710 Liverpool had become the third largest port in the country contributing £50,000 in customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
revenue. During the early-mid 18th century the major materials passing through Liverpool were salt from Cheshire and coal from the Lancashire coalfields. Other important materials were building stone, roofing slates from North Wales, and ores, particularly copper ore, from Anglesey
Anglesey
Anglesey , also known by its Welsh name Ynys Môn , is an island and, as Isle of Anglesey, a county off the north west coast of Wales...
. Later came imports of cotton, timber and grain to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...
, and potters' materials to The Potteries
The Potteries Urban Area
The Potteries Urban Area is a conurbation in North Staffordshire in the West Midlands region of England.It includes the city of Stoke-on-Trent, and the towns of Newcastle-under-Lyme and Kidsgrove....
. These materials were carried mainly by flat-bottomed barges known as Mersey flat
Mersey Flat
A Mersey flat is a type of doubled-ended barge with rounded bilges, carvel build and fully decked. Traditionally, the hull was built of oak and the deck was pitch pine. Some had a single mast, with a fore and aft rig, while some had an additional mizzen mast. Despite having a flat bottom and curved...
s. In the mid-Mersey area communications were being improved by the development of inland waterways, including the Sankey Canal
Sankey Canal
The Sankey Canal, which is also known as the Sankey Brook Navigation and the St Helens Canal, is a canal in Cheshire, extending into Merseyside, in the northwest of England, connecting St Helens with the River Mersey...
from St Helens
St Helens, Merseyside
St Helens is a large town in Merseyside, England. It is the largest settlement and administrative centre of the Metropolitan Borough of St Helens with a population of just over 100,000, part of an urban area with a total population of 176,843 at the time of the 2001 Census...
to Warrington
Warrington
Warrington is a town, borough and unitary authority area of Cheshire, England. It stands on the banks of the River Mersey, which is tidal to the west of the weir at Howley. It lies 16 miles east of Liverpool, 19 miles west of Manchester and 8 miles south of St Helens...
which was completed in 1757, the Mersey and Irwell Navigation
Mersey & Irwell Navigation
The Mersey and Irwell Navigation was a river navigation in North West England, which provided a navigable route from the Mersey estuary to Salford and Manchester, by improving the course of the River Irwell and the River Mersey. Eight locks were constructed between 1724 and 1734, and the rivers...
, the act
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
for which achieved Royal Assent
Royal Assent
The granting of royal assent refers to the method by which any constitutional monarch formally approves and promulgates an act of his or her nation's parliament, thus making it a law...
in 1720, and the Bridgewater Canal
Bridgewater Canal
The Bridgewater Canal connects Runcorn, Manchester and Leigh, in North West England. It was commissioned by Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater, to transport coal from his mines in Worsley to Manchester...
from Manchester to Runcorn, which opened throughout its length in 1776.
Lock (water transport)
A lock is a device for raising and lowering boats between stretches of water of different levels on river and canal waterways. The distinguishing feature of a lock is a fixed chamber in which the water level can be varied; whereas in a caisson lock, a boat lift, or on a canal inclined plane, it is...
connected the Runcorn basin of the canal with the Mersey at a position to the west of Runcorn Gap. Close to this point the Duke of Bridgewater
Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater
Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater , known as Lord Francis Egerton until 1748, was a British nobleman, the younger son of the 1st Duke...
built two tidal basins, two warehouses, a dry dock and a house, Bridgewater House
Bridgewater House, Runcorn
Bridgewater House, Runcorn is in the Old Coach Road, Runcorn, Cheshire, England. It has been designated by English Heritage as a Grade II listed building...
, from which to supervise the work. To the west of this area he later built the dock, which opened in 1791.
In 1804 the Runcorn to Latchford Canal
Runcorn to Latchford Canal
The Runcorn to Latchford Canal ran from Runcorn, Cheshire to the Latchford area of Warrington, then in the historic county of Lancashire...
was opened. This connected the Mersey and Irwell Navigation with the River Mersey at Runcorn. In 1810 the Weston Canal was built between Frodsham
Frodsham
Frodsham is a market town and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. Its population is 8,982. It is approximately south of Runcorn, 16 miles south of Liverpool, and approximately south-west of Manchester...
and the Weston Point area of Runcorn to avoid the difficult entrance to the mouth of the River Weaver
River Weaver
The River Weaver is a river, navigable in its lower reaches, running in a curving route anti-clockwise across west Cheshire, northern England. Improvements to the river to make it navigable were authorised in 1720 and the work, which included eleven locks, was completed in 1732...
. At Weston Point a dock was established. At the terminus of the Runcorn to Latchford Canal, in an area known as Old Quay, on the east side of Runcorn Gap, a dock was opened in 1826. This dock was built by the Mersey and Irwell company and included two sets of locks, one for incoming craft and the other for those leaving the canal. By this time the port of Runcorn comprised three separate companies, the Bridgewater Trustees, the Mersey and Irwell company, and the Weaver Trustees. In the early years of the 19th century the amount of cargo passing through the docks steadily increased. From 1816 to 1834 the Bridgewater dock increased its trade from 76,000 tons to 118,000 tons and the Mersey and Irwell from 90,000 tons to 135,000 tons. To cope with this increased business the Bridgewater Trustees built a new dock, the Francis Dock, which opened in 1843. In 1844 the Mersey and Irwell Company was purchased by the Trustees of the Bridgewater Canal.
Independent customs port
Throughout this time the port of Runcorn remained part of the port of LiverpoolPort of Liverpool
The Port of Liverpool is the name for the enclosed 7.5 mile dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of the river...
. Towards the middle of the 19th century the port was becoming more important and this was recognised on 5 April 1847 when it was designated as an independent customs
Customs
Customs is an authority or agency in a country responsible for collecting and safeguarding customs duties and for controlling the flow of goods including animals, transports, personal effects and hazardous items in and out of a country...
port. Its boundary extended on both sides of the Mersey from Warrington Bridge in the east to a point on a line stretching from Eastham
Eastham, Merseyside
Eastham is a village and an electoral ward of the Metropolitan Borough of Wirral, in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the Wirral Peninsula, to the south of Bromborough...
church in Cheshire to Chapel Farm House in Lancashire. It included the waters of the River Weaver up to Frodsham Bridge. It included, on the north bank of the Mersey, Widnes Dock
Widnes Dock
Widnes Dock was situated on the River Mersey at Widnes.It was built in 1833 between the end of the Sankey Canal and the St Helens and Runcorn Gap Railway. It was the first rail-to-ship facility in the world. The remains of the dock are to be found on Spike Island.-External links:*...
, the first purpose-built railway dock in the world. A more dignified customs house was built to mark the event. However Runcorn's status as an independent customs port was not a success. Few large ships were registered in the port or transferred from the Liverpool register and on 12th April 1850 it became part of the Port of Liverpool again. However the port's prospects improved at this time with the abolition of the Navigation Acts
Navigation Acts
The English Navigation Acts were a series of laws that restricted the use of foreign shipping for trade between England and its colonies, a process which had started in 1651. Their goal was to force colonial development into lines favorable to England, and stop direct colonial trade with the...
(which had restricted the use of foreign shipping), and an increasing number of foreign vessels began to arrive at the docks. Trade increased so much that the Bridgewater Trustees were having difficulty in coping with the increased trade. In 1853 an act promoted by the Earl of Ellesmere
Earl of Ellesmere
Earl of Ellesmere, of Ellesmere in the County of Shropshire , is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1846 for the Conservative politician Lord Francis Egerton. He was granted the courtesy title of Viscount Brackley, of Brackley in the County of Northampton, at the same...
led to the construction of a short canal, the Runcorn and Weston Canal
Runcorn and Weston Canal
The Runcorn and Weston Canal was a short canal near Runcorn in Cheshire, England, constructed to link the Weston Canal, which is part of the River Weaver Navigation, to the Bridgewater Canal and Runcorn Docks. It was completed in 1859, but was little used. Around half of it became the Arnold Dock...
, which connected the Francis Dock to the Weston Canal. This was opened for traffic on 25 February 1860. At this time the Runcorn docks were coming under increasing competition from the railways, especially from the St Helens Canal and Railway Company who opened Garston Dock
Old Dock, Garston
Old Dock, on the River Mersey at Garston, Liverpool, England is a maritime dock in the Port of Garston. It accessed from Stalbridge Dock and provides access to North Dock. Garston Dock was originally set up by the St Helen's Canal & Railway Company in June 1853.-External links:*...
downstream on the north bank of the Mersey.
Runcorn was appointed again as an independent customs port on 1 January 1862. In 1860 the Bridgewater Trustees had opened the Alfred Dock
Alfred Dock
Alfred Dock is a dock at Birkenhead, Wirral Peninsula, England. The dock covers an area of and provides access to the Great Float from the River Mersey. Of the existing two river entrances, only the north locks remain operational. Tower Road, which links Birkenhead with the Seacombe area of...
, which was fitted with hydraulic
Hydraulic machinery
Hydraulic machines are machinery and tools that use liquid fluid power to do simple work. Heavy equipment is a common example.In this type of machine, hydraulic fluid is transmitted throughout the machine to various hydraulic motors and hydraulic cylinders and which becomes pressurised according to...
cranes. In 1862 a telegraph line
Telegraphy
Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages via some form of signalling technology. Telegraphy requires messages to be converted to a code which is known to both sender and receiver...
was installed which linked the dock with the Bridgewater Trustees' offices in Manchester and their dock in Liverpool. From around this time there was a considerable increase in trade; in April of that year over 110 vessels entered the port, which was more than could be conveniently accommodated. In order to deal with the increased trade the Bridgewater Trustees began to build a new dock in 1867 and to remove obstructions from the river. The new dock was the Arnold Dock and this was opened in 1870. Before the repeal of the Navigation Acts most of the trade had been coastal; there now came a considerable increase in foreign trade. In 1845 foreign trade had been virtually nothing; in 1871 the export trade amounted to 43,000 tons and the imports more than 30,000. Matters were not as successful with the Mersey and Irwell business because there had been no major dock improvements since 1829 and the approach channels were silting up. On the north bank of the Mersey, West Bank Dock
West Bank Dock
West Bank Dock was situated on the River Mersey at Widnes.Built in 1864 to cater for the growing chemical industry.The dock closed in the 1970s....
at Widnes was busy especially with importing raw materials and exporting chemicals and fertilisers. The other major materials passing through the port were raw cotton, potter's clay, salt, coal and soap.
During the 1870s the business of the port was beginning to decline because of the progressive silting of the shipping channels. When the Duke of Bridgewater died in 1803 he left his coal mining and canal businesses to be run by a Trust. In 1872 the navigation part of the trust was sold to the Bridgewater Navigation Company at a cost of £1,115,000; this consisted of the Bridgewater Canal and the Mersey and Irwell Navigations, together with their docks and warehouses. The company developed further improvements including a new dock, the Fenton Dock (named after the chairman of the company) which was completed in 1875 at a cost of £50,000. This was equipped with hydraulic cranes and served by high level tramways and railway sidings. Meanwhile the Weaver Trustees were developing their trade, having built the Delamere Dock in 1870. The engineer for this dock was Edward Leader Williams
Edward Leader Williams
Sir Edward Leader Williams was an English civil engineer, chiefly remembered as the designer of the Manchester Ship Canal, but also heavily involved in other canal projects in north Cheshire.-Early life:...
who later became the engineer for the Manchester Ship Canal. There were no further large scale developments at the port until the Tollemache Dock was opened at Weston Point in 1885.
Coming of the Manchester Ship Canal
From about 1877 the silting of the channels started to improve and trade improved again. The improvement continued until 1889 when the construction of the Manchester Ship CanalManchester Ship Canal
The Manchester Ship Canal is a river navigation 36 miles long in the North West of England. Starting at the Mersey Estuary near Liverpool, it generally follows the original routes of the rivers Mersey and Irwell through the historic counties of Cheshire and Lancashire. Several sets of locks lift...
caused problems. Trade declined again and in 1894 the independent customs Port of Runcorn was abolished being incorporated in the Port of Manchester
Port of Manchester
The Port of Manchester in North West England was created as a customs port on 1 January 1894, four months before the opening of the Manchester Ship Canal. It extended along the whole length of the canal, from Eastham in the west to Manchester in the east, absorbing the Port of Runcorn, which...
. Construction of the ship canal began in November 1877. On 3 August 1887 the Manchester Ship Canal Company had purchased the Bridgewater Navigation Company for £1,710,000, thus acquiring the Bridgewater Canal and its docks and the Mersey and Irwell system. The ship canal allowed large ocean-going ships to travel to the Port of Runcorn. The canal was completed from Eastham to Weston Point by 1892 and in July of that year a temporary port, called Saltport, was established at the mouth of the River Weaver. By 1893 the ship canal was opened as far as the Old Quay Dock. In order to allow direct access to the Port of Runcorn and the Weaver Navigation four locks were built. Weston Marsh lock at the mouth of the Weaver allowed access to the Weaver Navigation, Weston Mersey lock enabled entrance to the Weaver Docks, the Bridgewater docks were served by the Bridgewater lock and the Old Quay dock by the Runcorn Old Quay lock. The ship canal was opened throughout its length in 1894. Saltport was bypassed and a few years later it was dismantled. To the east of the Bridgewater Dock the ship canal passes under Runcorn Railway Bridge
Runcorn Railway Bridge
The Runcorn Railway Bridge, which is also known as the Ethelfleda Bridge or the Britannia Bridge, crosses the River Mersey at Runcorn Gap from Runcorn to Widnes in Cheshire, England. It was built for the London and North Western Railway to a design by William Baker, chief engineer of the railway...
which has a clearance of 75 feet (23 m) above the high water mark of the Mersey. This meant that the larger of the tall ship
Tall ship
A tall ship is a large, traditionally-rigged sailing vessel. Popular modern tall ship rigs include topsail schooners, brigantines, brigs and barques. "Tall Ship" can also be defined more specifically by an organization, such as for a race or festival....
s could not pass under the bridge. A lay-by was therefore built for these ships to discharge their cargo, which was carried onwards by a lighter
Lighter (barge)
A lighter is a type of flat-bottomed barge used to transfer goods and passengers to and from moored ships. Lighters were traditionally unpowered and were moved and steered using long oars called "sweeps," with their motive power provided by water currents...
to its destination. The lay-by was big enough to accommodate the largest merchant vessels of the day. While the larger vessels approached the Runcorn docks by way of the ship canal, the smaller vessels sailed up the Mersey and entered the docks through the locks.
Decline and recovery
From the opening of the ship canal there was a temporary improvement in trade for the Runcorn docks but a decline set in from the turn of the century. There was a short revival after the First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
but this was not maintained. Improvements were made to Bridgewater Docks in 1935 but this was unsuccessful. By 1950 the docks were "virtually moribund". At Runcorn docks trade declined from 124,428 tons in 1925 to 32,881 tons in 1951, and at Weston Point dock from 200,000 tons in 1938 to 40,000 tons in 1954. The old line of locks from the Bridgewater Canal became disused in the late 1930s, they were closed under the Ship Canal Act of 1949 and filled in. The Ship Canal Act of 1966 allowed the closure of the new line of locks, the old dock area and the Francis and Arnold Docks. The Runcorn and Weston Canal has been filled in to provide additional quay space for modern docks and the old warehouses have been demolished. However with the building of the Silver Jubilee Bridge in 1961 communications to the docks have been improved and trade has begun to recover again. The dock entrance has been widened and the docks deepened. Trade increased from 50,000 tons in 1957 to 773,000 tons in 1973.
Runcorn Docks
Runcorn Docks is owned by the Manchester Ship Canal Company which is now part of the Peel Ports GroupPeel Group
The Peel Group is a diversified real estate, transport and infrastructure investment company in the United Kingdom. It has assets owned and under management approaching £6 billion...
. It now comprises Francis Dock, Alfred Dock and Fenton Dock. It can take ships with cargoes up to 5000 tonnes with a maximum length of 350 feet (107m) and maximum draught of 7 metres. The adjacent canal lay-by has a deepwater berth of 168m. It has pipelines handling chemical and other liquid cargoes connecting to adjacent storage facilities and to the Ineos
Ineos
INEOS Group Limited is a privately owned multinational chemicals company headquartered in Lausanne, Switzerland and with its registered office in Lyndhurst, United Kingdom...
Chlor network.
Port of Weston
In August 2007 the owners of the Port of Weston, The Westbury Property Fund, merged with the Eddie Stobart GroupEddie Stobart Ltd.
Stobart Group Ltd is a large British multimodal logistics company, with interests in Transport and Distribution, Estates, Infrastructure and Civils, Air and Biomass, through operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland and Belgium...
to form the Stobart Group Limited. This group plans to develop the site into an inter-modal port facility to enable freight, currently carried by road, to be transported by rail and water. This will mean increased warehousing, new container handling facilities, an extension to the existing West Coast main line
West Coast Main Line
The West Coast Main Line is the busiest mixed-traffic railway route in Britain, being the country's most important rail backbone in terms of population served. Fast, long-distance inter-city passenger services are provided between London, the West Midlands, the North West, North Wales and the...
rail siding, a new link road, and improved navigable access between the dock and the Manchester Ship Canal.