Herculaneum Dock
Encyclopedia
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...
in Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...
, 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 was situated at the southern end of the Liverpool dock system, 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....
. To the north it was connected to Harrington Dock
Harrington Dock
Harrington Dock was a dock on the River Mersey and part of the Port of Liverpool. Situated in the southern dock system, it was connected to Toxteth Dock to the north and Herculaneum Dock to the south. It was built by George Fosbery Lyster and opened in 1882....
. The dock was named after the Herculaneum Pottery
Herculaneum Pottery
The Herculaneum Pottery was based in Toxteth, Liverpool, England. between 1793/4 and 1841. They made creamware and pearlware pottery as well as bone china porcelain....
Company that had occupied the site before.
From 1767, a tidal basin in the area that would become the dock was used for unloading. In 1864, a new dock designed by George Fosbery Lyster
George Fosbery Lyster
George Fosbery Lyster succeeded John Hartley as Engineer in Chief to the Mersey Docks and Harbour Board. He was followed by his son, A.G. Lyster in 1897....
was blasted from the foreshore, providing two graving docks. This dock opened in 1866. Ten years later, a third graving dock was added.
Beginning in 1873, the dock handled petroleum
Petroleum
Petroleum or crude oil is a naturally occurring, flammable liquid consisting of a complex mixture of hydrocarbons of various molecular weights and other liquid organic compounds, that are found in geologic formations beneath the Earth's surface. Petroleum is recovered mostly through oil drilling...
. In 1878, specialist casemate
Casemate
A casemate, sometimes rendered casement, is a fortified gun emplacement or armored structure from which guns are fired. originally a vaulted chamber in a fortress.-Origin of the term:...
s were built to store this and other volatile cargo within the sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
cliffs above. The dock continued in this capacity until the task of oil handling was transferred across the river to Tranmere Oil Terminal
Tranmere Oil Terminal
Tranmere Oil Terminal is situated on the River Mersey, 1½ miles south of Birkenhead. It was opened on 8 June 1960 to handle vessels of up to 65,000 tons, and is connected to the Stanlow Oil Refinery by a 15-mile pipeline...
and Stanlow Oil Refinery. During 1881 the dock facility was enlarged further and a fourth graving dock was constructed in 1902.
Liverpool remained an important port during the Second World War, with Herculaneum Dock acting as a terminus for the North Atlantic Convoys.
Herculaneum Dock was formerly served by its own station on 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...
. The station (and railway) closed on 30 December 1956.
In 1972, Herculaneum Dock closed and was filled in during the 1980s. The area south of the dock contained a tank farm; this was reclaimed for the Liverpool Garden Festival and residential properties.
In 2004, the site was bought by national property developer David McLean Homes and a riverside residential development, called City Quay, Liverpool was built on the dock.