Alfred Dock

For the Alfred Graving Dock in Victoria, Australia, see Williamstown Dockyard.
Alfred Dock
Location Birkenhead, United Kingdom
Coordinates 53°24′13″N 3°01′12″W / 53.40361°N 3.02000°W / 53.40361; -3.02000
Opened 1866
Owner Peel Holdings

Alfred Dock is a dock at Birkenhead, Wirral Peninsula, England. The dock covers an area of 8 acres (32,000 m2) and provides access to the Great Float from the River Mersey. Of the existing two river entrances, only the north locks remain operational. Tower Road, which links Birkenhead with the Seacombe area of Wallasey, divides Alfred Dock from the Great Float via a bascule bridge. This bridge is the last remaining of the former Four Bridges which crossed the dock system at this point.

History

1909 map of the Alfred Dock, showing the original lock entrances and passages.

Completed in 1866, it was opened by Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, second son of Queen Victoria.[1]

Designed to replace the Great Low Water Basin, the dock was originally constructed with three lock entrances from the river[2] and three passages onwards to the Great Float. This provided much expanded access to the Birkenhead dock system, which was also served by an entrance channel further south via Morpeth Dock.

In order to accommodate larger vessels, the lock entrances and passages were widened and deepened in 1929.[3] This meant the removal of a river lock entrance and an access channel to the Great Float, in order to reconstruct the remaining facilities. At the same time, a bascule bridge and a swing bridge were constructed over two remaining passages. The dock was arranged so that the whole dock could be used as a lock.[4]

By the beginning of the 1980s, the remaining southern lock entrance had closed and was partly filled in. The redevelopment of Tower Road over a decade later precipitated in the removal of the swing bridge and the sealing up of the southern passage.[5]

The North quayside of Alfred Dock was an open quay. The southern quayside was unallocated. [6]

References

  1. ↑ Birkenhead Docks (page3), Merseyside Views, archived from the original on September 27, 2011, retrieved 10 October 2007
  2. ↑ Birkenhead Docks (photo 1), Merseyside Views, archived from the original on October 23, 2006, retrieved 10 October 2007
  3. ↑ Birkenhead Docks (photo 3), Merseyside Views, archived from the original on October 23, 2006, retrieved 10 October 2007
  4. ↑ Hobson, C.A. (December 1986). "Back to Birkenhead After 50 Years". Sea Breezes. Vol. 60 no. 492. p. 832. ISSN 0036-9977. OCLC 479104818.
  5. ↑ Birkenhead Docks (photo 17), Merseyside Views, archived from the original on September 27, 2011, retrieved 3 July 2009
  6. ↑ Ian Collard (2001), Mersey Ports, Liverpool and Birkenhead, Tempus Publishing Limited, p. 111, ISBN 978-0-752421-10-0

External links

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