Ellesmere Port Dock is a

dock A dock (from Dutch ''dok'') is the area of water between or next to one or a group of human-made structures that are involved in the handling of boats or ships (usually on or near a shore) or such structures themselves. The exact meaning va ...

in Britain, situated on the Manchester Ship Canal, in

Ellesmere Port Ellesmere Port ( ) is a port town in the Cheshire West and Chester borough in Cheshire, England. Ellesmere Port is on the south eastern edge of the Wirral Peninsula, north of Chester, south of Birkenhead, southwest of Runcorn and south ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's coun ...

, England.

History

Ellesmere Canal The Ellesmere Canal was a waterway in England and Wales that was planned to carry boat traffic between the rivers Mersey and Severn. The proposal would create a link between the Port of Liverpool and the mineral industries in north east Wales an ...

is the name of the area were the canal joins the river Mersey; by the mid-1790s it was known as Ellesmere Port. Docks and warehouses were built to facilitate this. Ellesmere-port-basin

Between 1830 and the 1840s facilities were improved by the engineer

Thomas Telford Thomas Telford FRS, FRSE, (9 August 1757 – 2 September 1834) was a Scottish civil engineer. After establishing himself as an engineer of road and canal projects in Shropshire, he designed numerous infrastructure projects in his native Scotla ...

and others. In 1846 the Ellesmere Canal was amalgamated with the

Shropshire Union Canal The Shropshire Union Canal, nicknamed the "Shroppie", is a navigable canal in England. The Llangollen and Montgomery canals are the modern names of branches of the Shropshire Union (SU) system and lie partially in Wales. The canal lies in ...

. In 1892 a new wharf was built to handle traffic on the

Manchester Ship Canal The Manchester Ship Canal is a inland waterway in the North West England, North West of England linking Manchester to the Irish Sea. Starting at the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary at Eastham, near Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, it generally follow ...

. In 1921 the docks were leased to the Manchester Ship Canal, and this led to the decline of Ellesmere Port.

20th Century

The site is now the

National Waterways Museum, Ellesmere Port The National Waterways Museum (NWM) is in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, England, at the northern end of the Shropshire Union Canal where it meets the Manchester Ship Canal (). The museum's collections and archives focus on the Britain's navigable in ...

(formerly known as the Boat Museum).

21st Century

In 2007, as part of a revival of some industries, ports and shipbuilding in Britain, Ellesmere Port docks were re-opened. In 2008 the site of Ellesmere Port's operational dock - including over of the waterfront area (immediately to the north-west of Ellesmere Port Historic Dock and Conservation Area and to the south-east of the Bridgewater Paper Works) - was the subject of a planning consultation, in which it may have been proposed that the docks be relocated closer to

Eastham Eastham or East Ham, may refer to: People *Ashley Eastham (born 1991), English footballer * George R. Eastham (1914–2000), English footballer * George E. Eastham (born 1936), English footballer and son of the George R. Eastham *Harry Eastham (19 ...

on the

Cheshire West and Chester Cheshire West and Chester is a unitary authority with borough status in the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It was established on 1 April 2009 as part of the 2009 local government changes, by virtue of an order under the Local Governm ...

/ Wirral boundary, and the area be redeveloped into a predominantly residential area consisting of up to 8,000 new homes. Plans for such development were expected to be submitted to the Local Authority during early 2009. Image:Ellesmere-port-lighthouse-2.jpg, Whitby lighthouse Image:Ellesmere-port-basin-lock1.jpg, lower lock and bridge

External links

MultiMap
Buildings and structures in Cheshire Mersey docks Ellesmere Canal Shropshire Union Canal Ports and harbours of Cheshire Ellesmere Port {{Cheshire-struct-stub