PLYMOUTH |
The Encyclopaedia of Plymouth History |
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CONSTRUCTION OF WEST WHARF Work started on constructing the West Wharf of Millbay Docks in 1877. The contractor was Mr Joseph Phillips CE who, it was said, 'carried out his contract to the letter'. The total cost of the contract was £80,000. The length of the Wharf was 750 feet and the platform was built of greenheart piles. For six months during its construction the Great Western Company used an Admiralty dredger to deepen the water in front of the Wharf to enable it to be built with a straight face. By the time the work was completed in January 1880, the depth of the water in front of the Wharf was twenty-four feet at ordinary spring tides, which enabled the largest vessels to get alongside and discharge their cargoes. At the end of the Wharf a breakwater was constructed to provide protection. It cost £7,000 and was built entirely of concrete blocks, each weighing twelve tons. Between the breakwater and the Wharf a landing-place was built for the exclusive use of the Admiralty in gratitude for their permission to carry out all the above-mentioned works. The opening to the basin was about 50 feet wide and the basin was about 100 feet long and the same in width. The rock had to be blasted away to enable the basin to be constructed, the walls of which were of concrete and granite. In addition a lifeboat station was also built, along with two flights of steps. A slipway led straight from the house to the water enabling the lifeboat to be launched as easily and quickly as possible. Both broad- and narrow-gauge railway lines were laid on the wharf and two new warehouses were built in 1880, a wooden one for the storage of guano and a massive stone warehouse for receiving and storing up to 16,000 quarters of grain. This building had a veranda running out from the first floor over the water by about 20 feet and supported upon iron pillars. A powerful steam crane hoisted the grain from the ships on to this veranda, from where it was taken immediately into the store. It could be transferred from the rear of the building directly into rail trucks. Elsewhere in the Docks, the old offices of Messrs H J Waring & Company were about to be demolished in 1881 and part of the ground floor of what had previously been the Pier Hotel was to be used to enlarge the baggage warehouse. |
