Last updated 16:50, Thursday, 08 May 2008

Margaret Crosby on the 300th anniversary of Whitehaven Town and Harbour

A LIVING BY THE SEA: A 1901 oil painting off Whitehaven harbour by artist Charles John de Lacy, artist to the Admiralty, which was presented to Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners by the London Dredging Co.

HAPPY 300th birthday Whitehaven! The town and harbour had existed before 1708 (the oldest part of the harbour, for example, dates from 1634), but 1708 was the year in which an Act of Parliament established a Board of Trustees to govern the harbour and town of Whitehaven.

That 300th anniversary is a milestone being marked with a varied programme of events throughout the summer.

It was during the reign of Queen Anne that the Act established the forerunners of today’s Harbour Commissioners.

James Lowther (as Lord of the Manor of St Bees) and 14 other trustees were put in place to run things.

It stands to reason that no celebration could be complete without the presence of at least one tall ship. One of the town’s regular favourites, the Zebu, is to sail into harbour on June 5 for a three-day stay.

In times long past the harbour would have been quay-to-quay chock-full of such graceful ladies of the seas; today there is still a vibrant vista, but now of colourful leisure craft and fishing vessels.

The old port’s success was built on the export of coal to Dublin and trade with the New World, importing tobacco, sugar and spirits in exchange for manufacturing goods. And the town itself flourished in line with the growth of the shipbuilding industry. Whitehaven yards gained a reputation for vessels of sound design and excellent workmanship. More than 1,000 ships were built in the town, mostly collier vessels.

In its 300-year official history, around 2,000 men have served as trustees/commissioners for the harbour (women were only allowed into the role in 1991, by a parliamentary order – Mrs Christine Jepson was the first).

The 1708 Act covered issues relating to import duties on goods and merchandise, bye-laws and penalties, improvement of the harbour, appointment of a pier master and permission to borrow money.

The trustees soon found that their biggest task was keeping the piers and quays in good repair after damage from both the weather and the vessels using it. It is thought the original quays were built of timber, and the stones laid without mortar. As repairs became necessary, the timber was removed and the stones properly laid.

A succession of Acts quickly followed, governing the operating of the town and harbour up until 1894, which was when responsibilities were split between “harbour’’ and “town’’. It was then that trustees were appointed as ‘commissioners’ for the harbour and that the Borough of Whitehaven received its charter of incorporation. After elections held later in the year, Hugh Cecil, 5th Earl of Lonsdale, was elected as its first mayor.

From then on the two entities, harbour and town, were governed separately.

The oldest part of the harbour is the 1634 Old Quay, which was extended in 1636. It was the first pier built by Sir Christopher Lowther for the export of salt from his saltpans to Ireland. It was 20 years later before his son, John, began to develop the coal industry. Later, smaller coal owners, mining at Distington, Moresby and Aikbank, wanted to see the development of Parton as a harbour to avoid paying Sir John’s fees for use of his pier at Whitehaven. Sir John bought them out.

During the 18th century tobacco was the most important commodity coming in through the port from Virginia and Maryland. Richard Kelsick was one of the town’s leading tobacco merchants. Grain, wines and spirits and materials for ship-building were also widely traded commodities.

In 1778, of course, came the most dramatic event in the history of the town and harbour, the raid by John Paul Jones in which the Scotsman, who had learned his seafaring craft in Whitehaven as an apprentice, tried to set fire to ships in the harbour in an act that he thought would bring him favour with his new American friends.

It was the American War of Independence that finished off the Whitehaven tobacco trade. The Americans took over shipment of the commodity, trading with Bristol, Liverpool and Glasgow. Some Whitehaven merchants, including Peter How, went bankrupt

A 1734 Act, under the reign of George II, had allowed for “preserving and enhancing’’ the harbour, to accommodate larger ships and with the increasing traffic down to the harbour area, powers were granted for the installation of turnpikes, under which toll fees had to be paid to use the roads leading to the harbour and town.

Charges made at the toll-gates were 3d for a horse-drawn chaise, a shilling for a coach and six horses, 1/6d for carts and wagons, but only a penny for a single horse or mule. If you wanted to drive oxen or cattle through, the toll fee was 10d per score and if anyone allowed their land adjacent to the toll to be used for free passage, they faced a 20/- fine. It was a similar fine for anyone found to be fraudulently evading tolls.

All money raised was to be used on improving the access roads to the town and harbour.

By 1754, the harbour trustees had built several new “moles’’ for the protection of vessels within the harbour and had borrowed a sum of £5,985. Then by 1761, in the reign of George III, the trustees became intent on supplying water and lighting to the town.

The rivers Poe (Pow Beck) and Bransty Beck leading to the harbour were to be “widened, deepened and covered’’ and there were new bye-laws for the government of the harbour and its wharfs.

In 1709 Pow Beck was an open stream, running through the market place, entering the harbour at the Custom House. Most people used it to deposit their rubbish and ashes.

Water was to be piped to the town from springs arising near Stanley Wood but the work had not to interfere with Sir James Lowther’s collieries. Rates would be levied on residents for water and lighting.

By 1801 the population of Whitehaven, including Corkickle, Ginns, Newhouses and Mount Pleasant, had risen to around 12,000 and the town was experiencing social problems of poverty and disease, crime and disorder. A new 1806 Act called for streets and lanes to be “properly flagged and paved and swept three times a week”. Watchmen and firemen were to be appointed and rates levied on people’s homes.

The 1816 Act gave power to the trustees to borrow up to £180,000 for deepening, improving and extending the harbour and Justices could appoint constables to preserve the peace. Street names were also to be erected.

A schedule of harbour duties on goods imported into the port of Whitehaven was set out, listing everything from tobacco (3/4d a ton) and raw sugar (2/- a ton) to looking glasses at 6d a box in duty and spirits at 10d per 100 gallons!

During the late 1870s the dock railway (connected to Bransty) was extended underneath the hurries and along the West Pier to which a branch was provided from Wellington Pit.

Among significant works carried out by the Commissioners was the renewal of dock gates in the 1920s.

Coal was still the mainstay of the harbour but in January 1982 the last coal shipments were made from Whitehaven. Pattinson’s Mill which, with its own vessels had imported grain, closed (as Quaker Oats) in 1972 and the other big user, Marchon, which imported phosphate rock, ceased the practice in 1992.

In 1993 Whitehaven Development Company was formed, tasked with a 10-year plan to regenerate the harbour.

TODAY the harbour is looking pretty good, the backdrop for highly successful Maritime Festivals and fully used and enjoyed by visitors and locals. Its stunning transformation started during the 90s by Whitehaven Development Company, after many years of neglect, has given residents a new pride in their home town. The huge investment in the lock-gates to create a permanent stretch of water resulted in a vital asset from which other development has flowed.

Even though a great deal has been achieved, Whitehaven harbour is, says chief executive of Whitehaven Harbour Commissioners, Celia MacKenzie, still very much “work in progress’’. Plans to facilitate a hotel development on the harbour are still at the forefront of minds, though there may still be a way to go to achieve that aim.

The latest parliamentary activity, known as a 2007 Harbour Revision Order, brought together the Harbour Commissioners and the Whitehaven Development Company into one organisation and the old Whitehaven trust port is now a new-generation trust port with wide-ranging powers and influence.

Following in the footsteps of their forerunners, today’s commissioners continue to lay strong foundations, hopefully for the next 300 years.