Ports & Harbours of the Irish Sea and the western coasts of Britain and Ireland

History

There was a coal boom between 1890 and 1914, and the dockyard business was immediately successful. By the end of 1889 Barry had exported 1.073 million long tons (1,090,000 t). In 1890 the docks shipped 3.192 million long tons (3,243,000 t). In 1891 the Barry Dock and Railway Company was renamed the Barry Railway Company. The chairman was Lord Windsor, who owned much of the land. David Davies was deputy chairman and responsible for running the company. 3,000 ships used the dock in 1899, taking 7 million long tons (7,100,000 t) of coal. In 1903 the docks shipped 9 million long tons (9,100,000 t). Only 10% of the coal went to other ports in Britain and Ireland. Most went overseas for use in steam engines.

Facilities

The dock entrance is on the east side of Barry Island, which protects it from winds from the west and southwest. Two rubble breakwaters with six-ton stone blocks on the seaward side protect the entrance from winds from other directions. Given the height of the tides, the breakwaters are substantial structures, 46 feet (14 m) high at the deepest part, and 200 feet (61 m) wide at the base. There is a 350 feet (110 m) gap between the breakwaters, from which a dredged channel of 1,455 feet (443 m) leads to the dock basin entrance. The channel has a least depth of 2.5 metres (8 ft 2 in), with a depth of 14 metres (46 ft) at spring tides and 12 metres (39 ft) at neap tides. At high-water spring tides the depth of water at the entrance to the basin is 38 feet (12 m).

Background

For most of the 19th century Cardiff was the main port for exporting South Wales coal. Cardiff shipped 998,000 long tons (1,014,000 t; 1,118,000 short tons) of coal in 1859, 1.9 million long tons (1,900,000 t; 2,100,000 short tons) in 1867 and 7.7 million long tons (7,800,000 t; 8,600,000 short tons) of coal in 1889. John Crichton-Stuart, 2nd Marquess of Bute (1793–1848) had built the Cardiff Docks, which remained in the possession of his son. Other coal mine owners had no choice but to use these docks and the Taff Vale Railway to export their product under terms dictated by Bute. They complained about delays and congestion at the port, and said that Bute was charging extortionate fees.

Location

Barry is situated on the north shore of the Bristol Channel, a few miles southwest of Cardiff.

Before the docks were created, Barry Sound lay between Barry Island and the mainland, sheltered from storms by the island and by Friar's Point. It had been a port since medieval times. The island was about 1 mile (2 km) long and 1⁄2 mile (800 m) wide, with a height of 120 feet (37 m) above mean sea level. The mainland slopes up to the north, so the sound was well sheltered from the wind. No rivers or streams ran into the sound.

The Bristol Channel is known for its tidal range.

History

Formerly subservient to Beaumaris as the region's main port, Holyhead came into its own in the early 19th century, when Thomas Telford built a new road to connect north Wales with London. The Admiralty Pier was constructed in 1821, and was used by the City of Dublin Steam Packet Company. The so-called "Irish Mail Line" of the Chester and Holyhead Railway ran from Holyhead railway station to the pier. The Admiralty Arch was built in 1824, marking the end of Telford's new road. The arch was designed by Thomas Harrison and its main purpose was to commemorate the visit of King George IV of the United Kingdom in 1821, when he arrived in Holyhead on the royal yacht, before leaving on a state visit to Ireland on the steam packet Lightning.

History

The station was originally opened on 19 January 1987 to replace the closed Ardrossan Winton Pier railway station. Ardrossan Harbour station is slightly further inland (approximately 220 yards/200 metres to the east) than its predecessor and is sited at the end of a 1-mile (1.6 km) long branch line from Ardrossan South Beach.

Opened under sectorisation of British Rail, the station was served by ScotRail until the privatisation of British Rail.

The station is unstaffed and consists of a single platform and shelter, a short walk from the "CalMac" terminal building.

History

Modern Port Talbot is a town formed from the merging of multiple villages, including Baglan, Margam, and Aberafan. The name 'Port Talbot' first appears in 1837 as the name of the new docks built on the south-east side of the river Afan by the Talbot family. Over time it came to be applied to the whole of the emerging conurbation.

The earliest evidence of humans in the Port Talbot area has been found on the side of Mynydd Margam where Bronze Age farming ditches can be found from 4,000 BC. There were Iron Age hill forts on Mynydd Dinas, Mynydd Margam, Mynydd Emroch and other nearby hills. Mynydd Hawdref contains remains of an ancient Iron Age village. The Margam deer herd dates from Norman times but deer in the area were mentioned during Roman occupation.

Physical geography

Port Talbot occupies an area of low lying coastal plain between Swansea Bay to the west (within the Bristol Channel) and the hills and valleys of Margam Moors (which are part of the wider South Wales valleys) to the south. The town is built along the eastern rim of Swansea Bay in a narrow strip of coastal plain surrounding the River Afan estuary. Swansea is visible on the opposite side of the bay. The local beach is known as Aberafan Sands and is situated along the edge of the bay between the River Afan and the River Neath. The other beach in Port Talbot is Margam Sands, popularly known as Morfa Beach. The north-western edge of the town is marked by the River Neath. A landmark in the town is the Port Talbot Steelworks.

Economy

On 20 November 2007, the Department for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform (BERR) granted consent for the world's largest biomass power station to be built at Port Talbot. The energy plant is capable of generating 40 MW of electricity and commenced energy production in 2019 using Grade-C waste wood sourced from local authorities, civic amenity sites and commercial or industrial sources across South Wales and the South West of England.

Potential future development currently centres around the peripheral distributor road to the south (the dual carriageway road in the Margam and Taibach areas was finished in 2013), Baglan Industrial Park and Baglan Energy Park to the west, Port Talbot Docks to the southwest, Margam Country Park to the east and the Afan Valley to the north.

Human geography

With heavy industry and an urban motorway, Port Talbot was reported as having the worst air pollution in Wales in 2005 with a PM10 particulate level of 30 μg/m3 (micrograms per cubic metre). By 2018 the air quality had improved to meet the WHO's recommended limit of 10 μg/m3.

According to the Office for National Statistics the Neath Port Talbot population had increased by 1.8 percent, from around 139,800 in 2011 to 142,300 in 2021.

History

The road from Gare Loch rises over high ground before descending steeply to Loch Long, and at the foot of the hill the last owner of the croft on the site built a stone into the roadside wall with the inscription "This road was made from the Castle Rosneath to Tenne Clauch in the year 1777 by his Grace John Duke of Argyll. Erected by John Fraser". The stone can still be seen in the wall, opposite the main jetty of the terminal.

The terminal takes its name from Finnart House, a country house to the east of the A814, constructed about 1832 for the Glasgow shipbuilder John Macgregor. It was designed by William Burn, who also designed Arddarroch House on the other side of the road, built in 1838 for the Glasgow merchant John McVicar. Both estates are now occupied by the oil depot.

History

The port dates back to Roman times: Lancaster Roman Fort was established around 80 A.D. and the local legend of a Roman harbour is supported by the suggestion that the garrison would have been supplied more efficiently by ship than by road. However evidence of a port here is scant for both the Roman period and the subsequent Viking settlement in Lancaster.

When Lancaster received its charter as a borough in 1193, this recognised the development of the town. It was in 1297 that Lancaster was recorded as a port along with Cartmel and Workington and Ravenglass.

History

Old Norse bryggja (quay), though this idea has been opposed on etymological grounds.

In the Domesday Book the town is listed as Brugie, but after the Norman invasion the land was given to Walter of Douai. Hence, as well as Burgh-Walter, an alternative version is that it derives from "Bridge of Walter" (i.e. Walter's Bridge).

What can be gained from the etymology of the town's name, is that Bridgwater has been a port of trade since pre-1200AD, when the first stone bridge was built within the town, which also marked the highest point of safe navigation for seagoing vessels. The town was the lowest practical crossing point on the River Parrett, although an alternate crossing via large stones at Combwich also existed but only at low tide.

History

The area around Port Ellen has a variety of archaeological sites covering the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age periods. There are standing stones at Kilbride, a fort at Borraichill Mor, several chambered cairns, and a chapel at Cill Tobar Lasrach. Nearby lie the ruined remains of the 14th-century Dunyvaig Castle, once a fortress of the MacDonald Lords of the Isles.

The current town was planned by Walter Frederick Campbell and founded in 1821 originally intended to support the herring industry. It was originally called Port Ellinor in honour of his wife, Lady Eleanor Charteris (d. 1832), daughter of Francis Douglas, 8th Earl of Wemyss.

History

In 1891, the Midland Railway, which already operated Morecambe Harbour four miles to the north-east, gave notice of its intention to develop a new harbour at Heysham and appointed consulting engineers James Abernethy and his son to undertake a feasibility study of the project. The plan was for an enclosed dock accessed through a lock, but idea made no further progress.

In 1895, a much larger Heysham port plan was put forward by Messrs James Abernethy & Son, in conjunction with the Midland Railway's chief engineer. This formed the basis of the harbour which was built, although there were many changes as work progressed and the full scheme was never completed.