Canada Dock
Encyclopedia
Dock (maritime)
A dock is a human-made structure or group of structures involved in the handling of boats or ships, usually on or close to a shore.However, the exact meaning varies among different variants of the English language...
on the River Mersey
River Mersey
The River Mersey is a river in North West England. It is around long, stretching from Stockport, Greater Manchester, and ending at Liverpool Bay, Merseyside. For centuries, it formed part of the ancient county divide between Lancashire and Cheshire....
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and part of the Port of Liverpool
Port of Liverpool
The Port of Liverpool is the name for the enclosed 7.5 mile dock system that runs from Brunswick Dock in Liverpool to Seaforth Dock, Seaforth, on the east side of the River Mersey and the Birkenhead Docks between Birkenhead and Wallasey on the west side of the river...
. It is situated in the northern dock system in Kirkdale. Canada Dock consists of a main basin nearest the river wall with three branch docks and a graving dock to the east. It is connected to Brocklebank Dock
Brocklebank Dock
Brocklebank Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Bootle, connected to Langton Dock to the north and Canada Dock to the south. Carrier Dock was originally sited to the east....
to the north and Huskisson Dock
Huskisson Dock
Huskisson Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England which forms part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Kirkdale. Huskisson Dock consists of a main basin nearest the river wall and two branch docks to the east...
to the south.
The dock was designed by Jesse Hartley
Jesse Hartley
Jesse Hartley was Civil Engineer and Superintendent of the Concerns of the Dock Estate in Liverpool, England between 1824 and 1860.-Hartley's career:...
opening in 1859. Canada Dock dealt in timber
Timber
Timber may refer to:* Timber, a term common in the United Kingdom and Australia for wood materials * Timber, Oregon, an unincorporated community in the U.S...
being named after the main source of the trade, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
. Fire was the greatest concern and the dock was initially kept isolated from the rest of the dock system for safety reasons. The original river entrance also presented navigational difficulties, with the area affected by silting. Modifications to the basin took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, creating the branch docks and graving dock. Further improvements took place during the 1950s and 1960s as the dock became a base for cargo liner
Cargo liner
A Cargo liner is a type of merchant ship which carried general cargo and often passengers. They became common just after the middle of the nineteenth century, and eventually gave way to container ships and other more specialized carriers in the latter half of the twentieth...
companies such as Harrison Line.
During the First World War, the liner RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania
RMS Lusitania was a British ocean liner designed by Leonard Peskett and built by John Brown and Company of Clydebank, Scotland. The ship entered passenger service with the Cunard Line on 26 August 1907 and continued on the line's heavily-traveled passenger service between Liverpool, England and New...
was refitted at Canada Dock, which included the installation of twelve 6-inch guns.
The dock was connected to the national rail network by the Canada Dock Branch
Canada Dock Branch
The Canada Dock Branch is a 4 mile 59 chain long railway line in Liverpool, England. The line runs from the large Edge Hill rail junction in the east of Liverpool to Seaforth Dock to the north. The line was originally built by the London and North Western Railway terminating at Canada Dock, with...
. The short branch line from Atlantic Junction, just west of Kirkdale railway station
Kirkdale railway station
Kirkdale railway station is a railway station in Kirkdale, Liverpool, England, located to the north of the city centre on the Northern Line of the Merseyrail network...
, into the dock was closed on 12 September 1982. The terminus was Canada Dock railway station
Canada Dock railway station
Canada Dock railway station was a station located on the Canada Dock Branch near Canada Dock, Liverpool, England. It opened on 1 July 1870 as Bootle, the name was changed to Canada Dock on 5 September 1881....
. Although the branch line closed to passengers in 1941, it remained in use for goods. The RUS states that there should be no building on the short path of the old track in case it requires reinstating.
Passenger services were also provided by the Liverpool Overhead Railway
Liverpool Overhead Railway
The Liverpool Overhead Railway was the world's first electrically operated overhead railway. The railway was carried mainly on iron viaducts, with a corrugated iron decking, onto which the tracks were laid. It ran close to the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, following the line of Liverpool Docks...
via Canada Dock (LOR) station
Canada Dock (LOR) railway station
Canada Dock was a railway station on the Liverpool Overhead Railway, situated sixteen feet above street level adjacent to the dock, and LNWR station of the same name.It was opened on 6 March 1893 by the Marquis of Salisbury....
until 1956.
Canada Dock remains in use, handling general bulk cargoes and as a site for scrap metal
Scrap Metal
Scrap Metal were a band from Broome, Western Australia who played rock music with elements of country and reggae. The members had Aboriginal, Irish, Filipino, French, Chinese, Scottish, Indonesian and Japanese heritage. The band toured nationally as part of the Bran Nue Dae musical and with...
processing and storage.