Early history

The earliest reference to a quay on the River Severn at Gloucester was in 1390, though there is known to have been one since Anglo-Saxon times.^[2] In 1580, Gloucester received a charter from Elizabeth I as a customs port with a customs house being built on the riverside quay.^[3] By 1780, as many as 600 boats were berthing at Gloucester every year,^[2] despite vessels only being able to navigate the upper reaches of the river at spring tides.^[4]

19th century expansion

In 1793 the Gloucester and Berkeley Canal Company received an Act of Parliament authorising the building of a new dock and ship canal cutting off the winding section of the River Severn. It was originally intended to rejoin the river at Berkeley Pill, the mouth of the Little Avon River. Work started in 1794 and by 1799 the basin had been completed along with a lock to allow access to the Severn, but only four miles of the canal had been completed when the money ran out.^[2] Eventually the direction of the works was taken over by Thomas Telford and the route shortened to join the Severn at Sharpness. The canal eventually opened in 1827.^[5]

In 1812, the lock started operating, allowing boats to access the new basin from the river to tranship cargo. Shipbuilding facilities, including a rope walk, and a dry dock were added in 1814 and 1818 repectively. By 1824, traffic had increased to the point where the company constructed a second quay on the east side of the basin. The following year, an arm off the east side of the basin was constructed to remove the barge traffic from the quays.^[2] The barge arm was specified by Telford to be only 10 ft (3.0 m) deep and the quay walls were only 2 ft (0.61 m) high to facilitate unloading from the smaller craft.^[6]

In 1827, the company constructed the first warehouse on the north side of the basin for the storage of sacks of grain. Designed by Barton Haigh, architect, of Liverpool, this was a four-story building built of red brick under a slate roof. The floors were laid on wooden beams supported by cast iron pillars. A central loading bay on each floor faced the quay, above them was a hand-operated hoist in a projection from the roof.^[2] The North Warehouse, and the later West Warehouse, since demolished, were built parallel to the quays. Subsequently another fourteen grain warehouses were constructed between 1827 and 1873 by merchants, either for their own use or for letting out to others. They had to adhere to the company style for the most part though detail differences existed. They were generally five or six-stories high and, unlike the North Warehouse, they were built at right angles to the quays. The last and largest to be built was the Llanthony Warehouse, now home to the Gloucester Waterways Museum.^[2]

In the 1830s, further expansion of the dock facilities took place. In 1834, a pump house was built to pump water from the Severn to maintain the level in the docks and the canal.^[7] The dry dock was enlarged in 1837 and the same year a new quay on the east side of the initial part of the canal below the Llanthony road bridge was constructed. Known as Baker's Quay it featured the Pillar Warehouse^[a] that was built parallel and right on the edge of the quay but with the ground floor cut back to allow passage along the quay itself and the front of the rest of the building carried on pillars over the quay. The main purpose of the quay was to provide storage yards for timber imports from North America and the Baltic.^[8]

In 1846, in anticipation of an increase in grain imports following the repeal of the corn laws, three new warehouses were built on the east side of the main basin.^[b][2] In 1847, the Britannia Quay was constructed in the space between the barge arm and the Llanthony bridge.^[2] By 1849, the Victoria Dock had been constructed east of the main basin and north of the barge arm. It was known as the salt basin as this was where salt from Droitwich and Stoke Prior was loaded for shipment to Ireland, a trade that continued up till the 1940s.^[9] Two new warehouses were built on the west side of the basin, in 1849 and 1851, predictably named Victoria and Albert.^[2] The end of the decade saw the completion of the first manufacturing, as opposed to storage, facility in the docks with the opening in 1850 of the City Flour Mill^[c] on Commercial Road which forms the northern border of the docks.^[2] In 1851 the stretch of the canal by Baker's Wharf was widened and the Llanthony Quay was constructed on the west bank. A second dry dock was opened in 1853. Situated to the south of the original dry dock, it was built by William Guest for the canal company to facilitate the repair of vessels involved in the export of coal from Gloucester.^[10]

In 1875, The opening of the new dock at Sharpness, which could handle larger vessels, led to a change in type of traffic arriving in the docks. Ships were now unloading their cargo in the new facilities and it was transferred to Gloucester Docks by barges.^[2] The last significant addition to the docks was the construction in 1892, of the Monk Meadow dock on the west side of the canal below the Llanthony Quay, to provide additional space for the timber trade. A timber pond was added south of the dock in 1896, to store large baulks without them drying out and cracking.^[11]

The coming of the railways

The first railway to serve the docks was the Gloucester and Cheltenham Tramroad which opened 4 June 1811. The purpose of the line was to transport coal and building materials to the developing spa town of Cheltenham. the line was a 3 ft 6 in (1,067 mm) gauge plateway, with cast iron rails on stone blocks, similar to the Surrey Iron Railway. Rolling stock consisted of trams hauled by horses.^[12] After the Birmingham and Gloucester Railway opened a dock at Baker's Quay, the tramroad was extended to the B&GR station on the opposite side of the city in 1841. In 1844, the route was adapted to serve standard gauge wagons as well as the trams.^[12] In 1848, the Midland Railway, which had taken over the B&GR, opened a branch line to the east side of the docks via High Orchard. in 1853, the Great Western Railway completed a branch line to sidings on the west side of the canal at Llanthony Quay.^[2]

Decline and regeneration

Every year since 2007, Gloucester Docks has been home to the Tall Ships Festival.^[13]

Listed buildings

All the buildings in this list are Grade II listed by Historic England.

Other buildings

Notes

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gloucester Docks.

Bibliography

• Conway-Jones, Hugh (2009). Gloucester Docks, An Historical Guide. Lydney: Black Dwarf Lightmore. p. 3. ISBN 9781903599 15 0.