New Docks, Fleetwood

THE NEW DOCKS AT FLEETWOOD. THE new docks at Fleetwood were opened on Monday by the directors of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway Co. The dock, which has for more than three years been steadily progressing under the hands of Messrs. Aird and Sons, of Lambeth, is from the designs of Sir John Hawkshaw, and forms at once a massive, and wonderfully finished piece of marine architecture. The length of the structure from end to end is 1,000 feet, with a breadth of 400 feet, embracing altogether an area of 9) acres; in addition to which there is a lock entrance measuring 250 feet by 50 feet. The dock walls are built with square blocks of stone, surmounted by a broad and solid coping of Cornish granite, and filled in behind with concrete, the whole being placed on a solid concrete foundation of 14 feet wide; they have an altitude of 33ft. 6in. The walls themselves vary in width as they approach the surface, and are in the lower half of their distance 12) feet, then 10) feet, and in the highest section 8) feet wide. The sill or floor of the dock is well puddled with clay, and stands 2ft. 9in. above the level of low water spring tides, so that an average spring tide of 26 feet will rise 23ft. 3in. above the sill, and an average neap tide of 20 feet will in like manner furnish a depth of 17ft. 3in. in the dock. The lock entrance is terminated at either end by an immense iron gate, consisting of two leaves, each of which is divided into three compartments weighing 60 tons, giving a total weight in the two gates of 240 tons. The gates are ballasted with 2) tons of gas tar to each, and the appliances for opening and shutting them are thoroughly efficient and handy. These gates were constructed by Messrs. Easton and Anderson, of London, and some idea of the labour they necessitated may be conceived when, it is stated that the four leaves contain no less than 28,800 rivets, being one rivet in every three inches. [Building News 12 October 1877 page 369]

Reference    Manchester Guardian Monday 8 October 1877 Page 6
Reference    British Architect 12 October 1877 Page 181
Reference    Building News 12 October 1877 page 369