Harwich International Port
Encyclopedia
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
seaport in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, 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...
. It lies on the south bank of the River Stour
River Stour, Suffolk
The River Stour is a river in East Anglia, England. It is 76 km long and forms most of the county boundary between Suffolk to the north, and Essex to the south. It rises in eastern Cambridgeshire, passes to the east of Haverhill, through Cavendish, Sudbury and the Dedham Vale, and joins the...
one mile upstream from the town of Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
, opposite Port of Felixstowe
Port of Felixstowe
The Port of Felixstowe, in Felixstowe, Suffolk is the UK's busiest container port, dealing with 35% of the country's container cargo. It was developed following the abandonment of a project for a deep-water harbour at Maplin Sands. In 2005, it was ranked as the 28th busiest container port in the...
. The port was formerly known as Parkeston Quay.
History
The Great Eastern RailwayGreat Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia...
, which was formed from the merging of the Eastern Counties Railway
Eastern Counties Railway
The Eastern Counties Railway was an early English railway company incorporated in 1836. It was intended to link London with Ipswich via Colchester, and then on to Norwich and Yarmouth. Construction began in late March 1837 on the first nine miles, at the London end of the line.Construction was...
and the Eastern Union Railway
Eastern Union Railway
The Eastern Union Railway was an early English railway, initially sanctioned by Act of Parliament on 19 July 1844, with authorised capital of £200,000 to build from Ipswich to Colchester. Further Acts of 21 July 1845 and 26 June 1846 authorised further increases in capital of £50,000 and £20,000...
in 1862 operated passenger steamers across the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
from Harwich
Harwich
Harwich is a town in Essex, England and one of the Haven ports, located on the coast with the North Sea to the east. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the northeast, Ipswich to the northwest, Colchester to the southwest and Clacton-on-Sea to the south...
to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
. By 1872, shipping trade had increased so that more capacity was required and the Great Eastern Railway obtained permission to reclaim land at Ray Farm, a mile to the west of Harwich, and build a new quay. This new quay was opened in 1883 by Charles H. Parkes, the then Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway company, the port being named after him as Parkeston Quay. The port had its own railway station, and a hotel
Hotel
A hotel is an establishment that provides paid lodging on a short-term basis. The provision of basic accommodation, in times past, consisting only of a room with a bed, a cupboard, a small table and a washstand has largely been replaced by rooms with modern facilities, including en-suite bathrooms...
was built between the northern platform and the quay, the hotel building is now used as offices. The railway station was originally called Parkeston, then Parkeston Quay; currently it is named Harwich International
Harwich International railway station
Harwich International is a railway station serving Harwich International Port in Essex, England. The station is located on the electrified Mayflower Line from Manningtree to Harwich Town...
.
The port remained under the ownership of the Great Eastern Railway until 1923 when the company became part of the London and North Eastern Railway (LNER). In 1939 the Admiralty
Admiralty
The Admiralty was formerly the authority in the Kingdom of England, and later in the United Kingdom, responsible for the command of the Royal Navy...
requisitioned Parkeston Quay for naval purposes, naming it HMS Badger
HMS Badger (shore establishment)
HMS Badger was commissioned on 13 September 1939 as the headquarters of the Flag Officer In Charge, Harwich and was decommissioned on 21 October 1946, although the Operations Room remained as the Emergency Port Control for the Harwich area...
and releasing it back to the LNER in 1946.
On 1 January 1948 the LNER was nationalised and the port came under the ownership of British Rail
British Rail
British Railways , which from 1965 traded as British Rail, was the operator of most of the rail transport in Great Britain between 1948 and 1997. It was formed from the nationalisation of the "Big Four" British railway companies and lasted until the gradual privatisation of British Rail, in stages...
ways.
In 1984 the port was sold to Sea Containers
Sea Containers Ltd
Sea Containers Ltd. is a Bermuda-registered company which operates two main business areas: transport and container leasing.In March 2006 the company sold its share of Orient-Express Hotels...
who sold it to Stena Line
Stena Line
Stena Line is one of the world's largest ferry operators, with ferry services serving Scotland, Sweden, Northern Ireland, Denmark, Norway, England, Wales, Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. Stena Line is a major unit of Stena AB, itself a part of the Stena Sphere, a grouping of Stena AB,...
in 1989. In 1997, Parkeston Quay was acquired by Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd
Hutchison Whampoa
Hutchison Whampoa Limited or HWL of Hong Kong is a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest companies listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange. HWL is an international corporation with a diverse array of holdings which includes the world's biggest port and telecommunication operations in 14...
, the current owners, who have renamed the port, Harwich International Port.
Current operations
Ferry
A ferry is a form of transportation, usually a boat, but sometimes a ship, used to carry primarily passengers, and sometimes vehicles and cargo as well, across a body of water. Most ferries operate on regular, frequent, return services...
operations with regular sailings to Rotterdam/Europort
Port of Rotterdam
The Port of Rotterdam is the largest port in Europe, located in the city of Rotterdam, Netherlands. From 1962 until 2004 it was the world's busiest port, now overtaken by first Shanghai and then Singapore...
, Hook of Holland by Stena Line and Esbjerg
Esbjerg
Esbjerg Municipality is a municipality in Region of Southern Denmark on the west coast of the Jutland peninsula in southwest Denmark. Its mayor is Johnny Søtrup, from the Venstre political party...
(Operated by DFDS Tor Line
DFDS Tor Line
DFDS Tor Line was a freight shipping company owned by the Denmark-based DFDS. DFDS Tor Line was a freight-carrying division of DFDS along with DFDS Lisco, DFDS Lys Line and DFDS Container Line...
). The Harwich-Cuxhaven, Germany (previously Hamburg
Hamburg
-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
) route was discontinued in late 2005.
Cruise ship
Cruise ship
A cruise ship or cruise liner is a passenger ship used for pleasure voyages, where the voyage itself and the ship's amenities are part of the experience, as well as the different destinations along the way...
s call regularly at the port during the summer months, tankers call at the Petrochem Carless
Petrochem Carless Ltd
-History:* 1859: Carless, Capel & Leonard was formed by Eugene Carless. It was later renamed Carless Refining and Marketing Ltd.* 1870: Carless started selling a volatile inflammable petroleum distillate tradenamed 'Petrol'. That is where the word "petrol" came from...
refinery
Oil refinery
An oil refinery or petroleum refinery is an industrial process plant where crude oil is processed and refined into more useful petroleum products, such as gasoline, diesel fuel, asphalt base, heating oil, kerosene, and liquefied petroleum gas...
and some general cargo
Break bulk cargo
In shipping, break bulk cargo or general cargo is a term that covers a great variety of goods that must be loaded individually, and not in intermodal containers nor in bulk as with oil or grain. Ships that carry this sort of cargo are often called general cargo ships...
and bulk cargo
Bulk cargo
Bulk cargo is commodity cargo that is transported unpackaged in large quantities. This cargo is usually dropped or poured, with a spout or shovel bucket, as a liquid or as a mass of relatively small solids , into a bulk carrier ship's hold, railroad car, or tanker truck/trailer/semi-trailer body...
s are worked at the port.
As of May 2010, the port is the base for the installation of the offshore Greater Gabbard wind farm and Thanet Wind Farm in the southern North Sea, and has also been used for Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm
Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm
Gunfleet Sands Offshore Wind Farm 172MW wind farm 7 km off the Clacton-on-Sea and Holland Essex coast in the Northern Thames Estuary, commissioned on 15 June 2010. It has 48 Siemens Wind Power wind turbines of 3.6 MW capacity each. Construction began in March 2008 and the first two turbines...
.
Facilities
There are four ro-ro berths with linkspanLinkspan
A linkspan or link-span is a type of drawbridge used mainly in the operation of moving vehicles on and off a RO-RO vessel or ferry.Linkspans are usually found at ferry terminals where a vessel uses a combination of ramps either at the stern, bow or side to load or unload cars, vans, trucks and...
s. The specialised pier for the High Speed Ferry Discovery
HSC HSS Discovery
HSS Discovery is a high-speed ferry owned by Albamar Shipping Company. It is a member of the HSS 1500 class of high-speed ferries built for and designed by Stena Line from 1996 onwards...
is disused now that the high speed ferry service has been discontinued and its linkspan has been removed. There are extensive railway sidings
Rail siding
A siding, in rail terminology, is a low-speed track section distinct from a running line or through route such as a main line or branch line or spur. It may connect to through track or to other sidings at either end...
adjacent to and within the port with 40 acre
Acre
The acre is a unit of area in a number of different systems, including the imperial and U.S. customary systems. The most commonly used acres today are the international acre and, in the United States, the survey acre. The most common use of the acre is to measure tracts of land.The acre is related...
s of standing for cars. In total there are over 105 acre (0.4249203 km²) of operational land with parking for over 1000 trailers
Semi-trailer
A semi-trailer is a trailer without a front axle. A large proportion of its weight is supported by a road tractor, a detachable front axle assembly known as a dolly, or the tail of another trailer...
.
Bathside Bay
Bathside Bay is a major new proposed £300 million containerIntermodal container
An intermodal container is a standardized reusable steel box used for the safe, efficient and secure storage and movement of materials and products within a global containerized intermodal freight transport system...
terminal scheme with 1,400 metres of quayside, 11 Ship-to-Shore Gantry Cranes, storage for 52,000 TEU
Twenty-foot equivalent unit
The twenty-foot equivalent unit is an inexact unit of cargo capacity often used to describe the capacity of container ships and container terminals...
s and capacity for 462,000 TEUs per annum. Development is not permitted to start before required works to be undertaken to the A120 road
A120 road
The A120 is an important trunk road in southern England. It follows the course of Stane Street, a Roman road from Standon, Hertfordshire at its western terminus to Colchester...
. Consultation on plans to upgrade the northern section of the A120 were put on hold in August 2009.