Administrative body of the Port of Liverpool
53°28′1″N
3°1′12.5″W
/
53.46694°N 3.020139°W
/
53.46694; -3.020139
The
Mersey Docks and Harbour Company
(MDHC), formerly the
Mersey Docks and Harbour Board
(MDHB), owns and administers the
dock
facilities of the
Port of Liverpool
, on the
River Mersey
, England. These include the operation of the enclosed northern dock system that runs from
Prince's Dock
to
Seaforth Dock
, in the city of
Liverpool
and the dock facilities built around the
Great Float
of the
Wirral Peninsula
, located on the west side of the river.
[1]
Peel Ports
, the MDHC's parent company, owns other maritime facilities in the area, including the
Cammell Laird
shipyard,
Tranmere Oil Terminal
and the
Manchester Ship Canal
.
[1]
[2]
History
[
edit
]
Liverpool Common Council's
Dock Committee
was the original port authority.
[3]
[4]
In 1709, it had been authorised to construct Liverpool's first enclosed ship basin, the
Old Dock
, which was the world's first commercial
wet dock
.
[5]
By 1750, the old Dock Committee was replaced by the
Liverpool Dock Trustees
.
[6]
In order to provide stone for the construction of the expanded dock system, from 1830 the trustees (and later the MDHB) operated large quarries at
Creetown
, Scotland.
[7]
The MDHB took over running of Liverpool's docks from the trustees in 1858. The need for Liverpool Corporation to divest its dock interests to a new public body was as a result of pressure from Parliament, dock merchants and some rival port operators.
[3]
[4]
[6]
At one point the MDHB railway totalled 104 miles (166 km) of line, with connections to many other railways. A section of the line ran, unsegregated from other road traffic, along the dock road. Today only the
Canada Dock Branch
is used.
In 1972, the MDHB was reconstituted as a company to allow it to raise money for new building initiatives and projects, including the
new container dock at Seaforth
. Four
lightvessels
in the approaches to the River Mersey were maintained by the MDHB until 1973.
The company operated a private lifeboat station that was involved in a number of incidents over the years.
Management
[
edit
]
The MDHC was accused of "macho management" by the
Financial Times
regarding its treatment of some of its staff in the 1990s, which resulted in the
Liverpool dockers' strike
.
[
citation needed
]
On 22 September 2005, the MDHC was acquired by Peel Ports, part of the property and transport group
Peel Group
, which owns a minority stake in
Liverpool John Lennon Airport
.
Facilities
[
edit
]
Cammell Laird Dock
is a
dock
at
Birkenhead
, on the Wirral Peninsula. It exits directly onto the
River Mersey
.
The dock was built as part of an expansion of the
Cammell Laird
shipyard at the turn of the 20th century by enclosing what was once Tranmere Pool.
[8]
Following the closure of the original Cammell Laird shipyard in 1993, the dock and the four remaining
dry docks
at the site are owned by the MDHC. All were subsequently leased, firstly to the
A&P Group
and then to
Northwestern Shiprepairers & Shipbuilders
, which officially renamed itself Cammell Laird Shiprepairers and Shipbuilders Ltd on 17 November 2008.
[9]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Port of Liverpool (official map)
(PDF)
, Peel Ports
, retrieved
18 December
2008
- ^
Port of Liverpool & Manchester Ship Canal
, Peel Ports
, retrieved
18 December
2008
- ^
a
b
Mersey Docks & Harbour Board: the Board is formed
, Port Cities/E. Chambre Hardman Archive, archived from
the original
on 27 September 2006
, retrieved
18 December
2008
- ^
a
b
Mersey Docks and Harbour Board collection
, National Museums Liverpool, archived from
the original
on 3 February 2009
, retrieved
18 December
2008
- ^
"Trading Places: Old Dock History"
,
National Museums Liverpool
, archived from
the original
on 24 March 2008
, retrieved
18 December
2008
- ^
a
b
Storrie, Robert,
Embryo of a Port 1715
, Mike Royden's Local History Pages, archived from
the original
on 11 October 2012
, retrieved
18 December
2008
- ^
Creetown, Scotland: The Kirkmabreck Quarries
, retrieved
29 May
2006
- ^
Maund, T.B. (November 1991),
Mersey Ferries - Volume 1
, Transport Publishing Co. Ltd., pp. 52?53,
ISBN
0-86317-166-4
- ^
Hodgson, Neil (17 November 2008),
Cammell Laird name returns on River Mersey
,
Liverpool Echo
, retrieved
18 December
2008
External links
[
edit
]