Weekly Meeeting - Tony Conder -The History of Gloucester Docks

Tony Conder -The History of Gloucester Docks

Tony gave us an extensive picture of the development of the docks from its beginning including the earlier construction of the canal which opened in 1827. He illustrated his talk with excellent slides of historic artwork from the Gloucestershire Archive collection.

The Ship Canal
The original intention was for the canal to start at Berkeley Pill, but this attempt failed. It was only restarted after several years and this time the entrance from the river was changed to Sharpness
A main basin was excavated at Gloucester and formed the northern end or terminus to the ship canal. The Canal company built a warehouse at the north end and this was the beginning of:

Gloucester Docks.
Ships were now able to bring cargoes direct to Gloucester and allow transfer to barges for onward travel to the Midlands. Trade increased and a barge arm was added for narrow boats, to keep the main basin free for the ships. As the trade at Gloucester further expanded, the Victoria basin was built, opening in 1849, as an addition to cater for increased number of sea going ships using the Canal.

In the 1860’s, a period when imports of corn and timber came through Gloucester, storage facilities were needed and the warehouses were built around the basin resulting in the docks as we see them today and Bakers Quay was built along the Canal creating space for the timber yards to develop.

Dredging was, and still is, necessary.  One method was to disturb the mud on the bottom to allow it to rise and be taken away by the water flow.

Gloucester Docks are classed as a sea port, although well inland (the most inland in the UK)

Initially goods were taken north to the Midlands by Boat including the Severn Trows which were often pulled upstream manually. This was a trade which was eventually overtaken by the railway. There followed many years of changes in fortune in the Docks, with petroleum added to the products coming in and the corn trade reducing.

Tony concluded by drawing attention to Hugh Conway-Jones's book - "Gloucester Docks an  historical Guide" for those wishing to delve deeper into the Docks history.

We thank him for a most interesting evening. We should ask him back, perhaps with a refresher on the Severn Trow.

Michael Holyoake