The Port of Grimsby is located on the south bank of the Humber Estuary at Grimsby in North East Lincolnshire. Sea trade out of Grimsby dates to at least the medieval period. The Grimsby Haven Company began dock development in the late 1700s, and the port was further developed from the 1840s onwards by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway (MSLR) and its successors. The port has had three main dock systems:
The earliest dock, or Old Dock was developed in the 1790s, downriver from the medieval Haven, on the outfall of the same water course; in around 1880 it was expanded westwards, and renamed Alexandra Dock, being connected to the Royal Dock system by a short canal, named the Union Dock. From the 1880s the dock's focus was coal, later timber. From the 1970s onwards the dock has been used for large-scale car importation.
The Royal Dock was developed from the 1840s onwards, contemporary with the arrival of the railway – it was built on a large area of land reclaimed from the Humber Estuary north-east of the original town and harbour. The dock's trade has included a wide variety of goods including coal, timber and general merchandise.
The third dock system is the Fish docks, all of which exit(ed) from the same lock(s) onto the Humber close to and east of the Royal Dock lock. The first fish dock ("No.1") was built 1857, and expanded southward in 1878 with the addition of a second ("No.2"); both were built within the land reclaimed as part of the Royal Dock development. In 1934 a third fish ("No.3") dock substantially expanded the No.1 dock, and reclaimed additional land from the Humber. The Fish docks and nearby estate were devoted to the landing of fish, and maintenance, supply and repair of the Grimsby fishing fleet, which grew into one of the largest in Britain. The fishing industry collapsed in the 1970s due to outside factors.
The Grimsby Haven Company was re-incorporated as the Grimsby Dock Company, which amalgamated in 1846 with several railway companies into the MSLR, later known as the Great Central Railway (GCR). The GCR (and docks) became part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER) during the 1923 Grouping. In 1948 nationalisation formed the British Transport Commission from which British Transport Docks Board was split in 1962. Privatisation by the Transport Act 1981 formed Associated British Ports, the present owner of the port.
As of 2015 the port is a major car importation location, as well as an offshore wind farm servicing hub, and handles other cargos including timber, minerals, metals and dry bulks.
History
Early history
Grimsby's development as a landing place and town has an underlying basis in the area's geography – the combination of relatively high ground (compared to surrounding land) of over , near to the Humber, and close to a water outfall (The Haven).
Grimsby has been documented as a landing place dating to at least the Viking Age. According to 19th century writers Grimsby was referenced in medieval histories as the landing place of marauding Danish armies. The haven is also reputed to be the landing place of the semi-legendary figures Grim and Havelok in the town's founding myth, Havelok the Dane (written ). In the second year of the reign of King John (12th century) he visited the town and conferred on its inhabitants the right that "they should be exempt from toll and lastage, stallage, moorage, haustage, and passage, in every town and seaport throughout England, except the city of London ..", the town was also granted the right of a ferry in the same year. Henry III granted the town a ferry across the Humber, as well as a charter of merchandise.
Records of trade with Scandinavian countries date to the 11th century, with furs, wool, and falcons being traded. Importation of pine and oil from Norway is recorded from the early 13th century; grain was exported. Fish and fishmongery in Grimsby are well documented as a part of trade and business from at least the late 12th century, and continued as important until the 16th century.
In the 13th century, the people of Grimsby came into dispute with the people of the then-thriving port town of Ravenserodd over the alleged 'hijacking', either by persuasion or force, of trade intended for Grimsby to the port of Ravenserodd. An inquisition into the rivalry was held in 1290 by order of Edward II. Later, during Edward II's war with France, the Mayor and bailiffs were commanded to equip Grimsby ship, place them under the command of James Kingston, and then patrol the coast of eastern England, capturing and impounding any French or allied vessels.
The Haven and was prone to silting, and in 1280 proposals were made to divert the River Freshney to scour the harbour. By 1341, a new haven, the West Haven had been constructed, excavated from former pasture land.
During the 14th and 15th century, trade with Scandinavia declined, in part due to Hansa competition, whilst trade with the Low Countries increased, during this period the port faced increased competition from the developing ports at Hull and Boston. As continental trade decreased, fishing and general coastal trade increased in importance for the port.
Icelandic fishing and importation of timber from Norway took place but declined from the 15th to 17th centuries. By the end of the 18th century the place had greatly decreased in importance as a port, and many of what remained of the inhabitants got a living from the land. The population had diminished from around 1,500 persons in 1400 to an estimated 850 in 1524, and 399 in the early 1700s. de la Pryme visited in 1697 and noted the towns decline.
De la Pryme noted efforts to unblock the haven on his visit, and in the same period work was underway to divert and use the Freshney to scour the West Haven.
Parts of the haven are now listed structures, as are maltings on the quayside, parts of which date to the late 1700s.
The Old Dock (1796–1880)
Plans to re-engineer the haven and create a new dock were put forward from the late 1800s. Pickernell produced a plan for a dock in 1787. It was not until the (36 Geo. 3. c. 98) was enacted, creating the Grimsby Haven company. The act noted that the River ('Haven') at Grimsby was warped (silted) up, preventing most ships docking transferring cargo subject to the state of the tides, and so, suggested widening, deepening, and straightening the haven, installing a lock to impound water within the lock, and redirecting the flow of the Freshney (and of springs known as Blow Wells) to scour and fill the lock, allowing larger vessels reliable harbourage at the town. The act sought permission to create a company to fulfil these task, which would also be responsible for erection of wharfs, warehouses; maintenance; tolls and so on; and to gain authority for compulsory purchase of lands required for the works. The acts also set out the regulation of the said company, and gave the company certain rights to make bye-laws relating to the operation of the dock. The act permitted the raising of £20,000, and a further £10,000 in contingency.
Construction took place from 1797 to 1800 under John Rennie. George Joyce was initially resident engineer, but was replaced by James Hollinsworth who was present 1800 to 1801. The dock construction required hollow dock walls on piled foundations which were designed in account of the weak ground conditions at the dock site. The cost of the works was £60,000. As built the locked canal was long, with a single lock long by wide, with a depth at the walls of . The dock works were carried out under the shield of a coffer dam outside the new lock, with extensive use of piling under the lock and wall constructions. Use of piles was attempted under the lock pit bottom but the ground was too fluid for this to be successful and an inverted arch was employed instead Further expansion was required, and a further act, the (39 Geo. 3. c. lxx) was obtained, which allowed the construction of an expansion of the dock of . The expansion was completed in 1804.
The dock had a depth of water of reducing to towards the town, and to on the west branch of the dock (1846); silting required the dock to be periodically cleared, which had been done in 1826, by hand, and later in the 1840s by machine dredger of approximately . Between of mud was removed from the dock in 1826.
After opening there was an initial growth of the town when three streets, later renamed Victoria Street, Burgess Street and King Edward Street, were laid out parallel to the dock, but from 1811 to 1841 the rate of expansion was no different from the rest of Lincolnshire; the port lacked any rail connection until the 1840s. By the 1850s, the dock was involved in trade with the Baltic region, including timber, deal, tar, seeds, bones, and iron. Dock fees were less than those in Hull.
In 1869, the Grimsby Improvement Act 1869 (32 & 33 Vict. c. x) allowed the land west of the Old Dock to be developed, and a bridge, known as Corporation Bridge, built across the dock. The bridge was constructed by Head Wrightson and the Teesdale Ironworks to the design of Charles Sacre. The bridge was supported on concrete filled screw piles, with two spans of and four of . Situated between the two sets of spans was a horizontally turning swing bridge of of asymmetric hogback plate girder design with a clear space when open of . The bridge opened in 1872.
In 1873 the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway was enabled by the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway Act 1873 (36 & 37 Vict. c. lxxvii) to build a short line connecting from their line (Great Grimsby and Sheffield Junction Railway) near Great Coates to the Old Dock. Logan and Hemingway obtained the contract to construct the line with a bid of £3,984, and construction began in November 1878. The line (Great Coates branch) opened 27 March 1879.
In 1880 the dock was modernised and extended substantially to the west, forming the Alexandra Dock. A short canal dock, the Union Dock was opened in 1879, connecting the Old Dock system, to the Royal Dock system.
The dock's lock was closed in 1917 and later infilled.
Alexandra Dock (1880–)
In 1873 the dock owners, the Manchester, Sheffield and Lincolnshire Railway acquired of land to the west of the Old Dock. A scheme for dock creation at South Killingholme near Immingham by Charles Liddell was considered as an alternative, but rejected. In December Logan and Hemingway became contractors for an expansion of the Old Dock. the works included an expansion of the 1789 Old Dock, plus a large western arm extending from near the entrance.
In honor of a visit by the Prince and Princess of Wales (Edward VII and Alexandra of Denmark) to the town in July 1879 the new dock was named Alexandra Dock. The expanded dock was filled with water in November 1879, and reported complete in July 1880. Contracts for handling equipment, and jetties and coal drops, as well as a swing bridge across the Old Dock's lock were let soon after. The bridge connected rail lines from the Great Coates branch to lines on the west side of the Royal Dock.Ordnance Survey 1888–1889. 1:2500
In the 1920s a replacement bridge across the dock (Corporation Bridge) was constructed to the design of Alfred C. Gardner, docks engineer of the LNER, constructed by Sir William Arrol & Co. (Glasgow). The bridge consists of four spans, one of which is an electrically powered lifting section on the Scherzer rolling lift principle. The bridge was formally opened by the Prince of Wales (Edward VIII) on 19 July 1925. The bridge was listed in 1999.
By the 1930s one of the two original coal drops was out of operation, with coal handling at the port being transferred to new equipment at the Royal Dock. By the 1950s both coal drops had been removed, with the embankments remaining; cargo handling at the dock had shifted to timber; by the end of the 1960s the timber trade had also declined.