The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-10-25 00:00:00

Seacombe Point to the head of Woodside Ferry Pier, a
distance of about a mile, with an entrance nearly two
hundred yards wide, about the middle of the wall to the
basin, of thirty-seven acres, which was to be excavated to
the depth of twelve feet below low-water spring tides ;
and at the south end a beaching ground of sixteen acres.
The quantity of land to be recovered by the embankments
will be about a hundred and twenty acres.

The foundation stone of the Birkenhead Docks was laid
on the 23d of October, 1844, by Sir Pucur DE MALPA s
GREY EGERTON, Bart., M.P. for South Cheshire, and the
works were proceeded with at first with great spirit ; but
several alterations were made in the original plans, in-
cluding the construction of graving-docks near the sou-
thern entrance upon a site which, according to the ori-
ginal intention, would have been the property of the
Commissioners of Woods and Forests, but which in
August, 1846, was exchanged for other lands belonging
to the Dock Company. The docks which were actually con-
structed were the Morpeth Dock, which is a passage-dock
of about 350 yards in length, leading from Woodside Ferry ;
and the Egerton Dock, near Bridge-end. There are a num-
ber of arches at the upper dock, on each side of a tongue
forming a quay running westward, which protect the
months of sluices intended to scour the great basin.
There are also large sluices on each side of a thirty-feet
lock for scouring the outer basin. The entrance by the
dock-gates from the Woodside Basin into the Morpeth
Dock, is fifty feet wide in the clear ; and the sill is of the
same depth as the Prince's Dock in Liverpool. The other
entrance is seventy feet wide, and is crossed by a commo-
dious swing-bridge, with two roads for carriages, and one
for the Chester and Birkenhead Railway.

To prevent the entrance being blocked up by the accu-
mulation of sand, a tunnel has been constructed from Wood-
side Ferry to near the head of Wallasey Pool, where, by
means of floodgates, the surplus waters of the Birken and
the other streams, which drain upwards of eleven thou-
sand acres of land, are retained, and through several cuts
from different parts of the tunnel, which is ten feet six
inches in diameter, an immense body of water can be
brought to bear upon the silt.
Considerable progress was also made in the erection of
warehouses, which were built in the most substantial
manner; and during this time the Chester and Birken-
head railway was extended from the station in Grange-
lane to the docks, to which the water was first admitted
on the 27th of March, 1847. On the sth of April, in the
same year, the three great undertakings,—the docks, the
warehouses, and the railway extension,—were formally
opened for public business ; and, since that time, the
works which were then completed have been in active
operation.

Up to the time just mentioned the works had been
vigorously proceeded with, but immediately afterwards
the reaction consequent upon the railway mania set in
rapidly, there was a panic in the money market, changes
took place in the constitution of the Board of Dock Trus-
tees, and the operations were paralyzed, notwithstanding
the great progress which had already been made. These
events gave rise to much altercation between the several
parties interested, and the surveying officers of the Admi-
ralty found fault with the commissioners for having
turned their attention to the little Bridge End, or Egerton
Dock, instead of proceeding with the works for the Great
Float of 150 acres. In their report they say :—" The
works are almost suspended, and a passage excavated
through the red sandstone, between the Bridge End Dock
and the Woodside Basin, equal in area to its own extent,
as a temporary passage. Much valuable time is spent,
and money expended on this work, the consequences of
which were soon felt. The temporary cut is then sur-
rounded with quay walls, furnished with gates, and all the
necessary expensive and certainly most substantial masonry.
The work is all but completed. When completed, accord-
ing to the evidence, it will amount to £79,000 expended on
this unlegalised work, and, it would appear, up to Dec.
last, £263,907 on the whole works. All that has been
obtained since the bill of 1E44 is the Bridge End Dock, of
31 acres area, with a lock opening into a channel not yet
formed, and which cannot be preserved when formed,
without the aid of sluicing from the Great Float, except at
a great expense; and the temporary cut, called the Mor-
peth Dock, of 31 acres area, and of such a width that no
ordinary sized steamer can wind in it. To sum up all,
instead of dock accommodation for some 1,500 vessels,
there is provided insufficient accommodation for some 50
or 60 at most, and that partly at the expense of the
coasters. The argument used is, that all has been done
for the purpose of exhibiting a revenue, so as to be enabled
to borrow money to carry out the great works."
The time, however, had gone by for borrowing more
money ; all that had been raised was expended, and,
with the exception of the works referred to, which were
available for the purposes of business, almost all the rest
has been, until very recently, at a stand. We shall pro-
ceed, in a future article, to describe the present position of
the works, the prospects of present arrangements, and also
what more is required to be effected in order to render the
western side of the Mersey more fully available for the
rapidly increasing trade of the port.
(To be continued.)