Ipswich
Wet Dock: quays and wharves
Wandering
around the Ipswich docks over
the
years, as so many residents must do, we've often been puzzled about the
names of the wharves and quays and quite where one begins and another
ends. The map here is an initial attempt to insert the names used at
various times and attach them to various parts of the dock and River
Orwell. We hope it is of some interest and we welcome comments and
additions, stories and anecdotes: see bottom of this page for a link.
Talking of which...
"To find
the old names you need the little maps that used to be issued by the
Ipswich Dock Commission with their annual reports [see reproduction
below]; they show many of
the old names - of which Tovell's Wharf is not one. Tovell's Wharf was
constructed in the 1920s when the old 'branch dock' was filled in - it
had originally been a timber pond for the storage of imported timber.
The new wharf was named after George Tovell, a member of the Ipswich
Dock Commission in the early days; he had a cement works in the area on
which the wharf was built. By the way, you have misplaced it on your
map, putting it at South West Quay; Tovell's Wharf is where you have
the word 'Quay', opposite the Custom House. There are also large-scale
OS plans at 50 inches to a mile in the Suffolk Record Office; the first
edition, 1882 or thereabouts, and the second of the early 1900s will
give you all the names." We're grateful for the assistance in (May
2011) of Bob Malster, a proper local historian,
and his interest in the website.
Stuart and Des of the Ipswich Maritime Trust have contributed two maps:
"You will see from Stuart's plan that St Peters Wharf is actually in
the New Cut right by Stoke Bridge; at one time the water was wider
there But the area at the head of the dock was widened to take
another railway line." We naively assumed that St Peter's Quay was the
part of the Wet Dock which ends in the 'nip' at the west end, i.e.
adjacent to St Peter's Church. We also note that 'Common Quay' shown on
some maps as stretching along the northern section of the dock became a
shorter quay around the Old Customs House, part of it replaced by
'Neptune Quay', perhaps.
Those in the know will spot that the adjacent map is a summary or
compromise which attempts to show the names and positions used over
time since the Ipswich Wet Dock lock gates were first opened on 17
January 1842. This date is taken from the invaluable book 'A Victorian
vision: the building of Ipswich Wet Dock' by Bob Malster and Bob Jones
(see Reading List).
An example of the way in which wharf and quay names change over time is
provided in Twinch, C.: 'Street
by street Ipswich' (see Reading list).
"The Common Quay, formerly Key or Cay, was also known as the Old Quay
and is one of the three small quays of medieval Ipswich – the
Common Quay, Bigod's Quay and one owned by the Harney family. The
wharves of Common Quay (part of which is now encompassed by Neptune
Quay) were known as St Peter's and the Albion. Dr Taylor's description
of this important part of the waterfront in 1888 cannot be bettered: 'A
few years ago the site of the [Common] dock was the junction of the
Gipping and the Orwell – before the 'new cut' was made, and the
upper reach of the Orwell estuary imprisoned to form a dock. The river
then came directly up to the warehouses. Some of the latter are very
ancient, and are now being pulled down or modernised.'* "
(*Dr
J.E. Taylor: In
and about ancient Ipswich. 1888)
[UPDATE Sept. 2011: The Ipswich
Maritime Trust (partially as a result of an enquiry about wharf names
from this website) has produced an excellent 'IMT
Occasional Paper No.
1: Quays and wharves of Ipswich' which attempts a 'definitive' map
of
the names: very difficult as they changed and moved over time with
custom and developments in the industrial activity around the Wet Dock.
We have updated the map here from that document and thank the IMT for
its research (also the excellent illustrations in the occasional
paper). One controversial inclusion is the placing of 'Orwell Quay' on
the east bank of New Cut, whereas people currently believe the stretch
of quay which was 'Ransome's Wharf' at the time of their engineering
works on the east side of the Wet Dock to be 'Orwell Quay'. Bob
Malster's research has uncovered other names,
too. It all highlights the rich history of maritime activity in
Ipswich.]
1930 map
[UPDATE August 2012: Gordon
Pugh has sent an image of an Ipswich map of
c.1930 which gives another view of the evolving Wet Dock. The
'Branch Dock' mentioned by Bob Malster is clearly shown, also the
'Public Warehouse' which still stands, sans lettering, in the 21st
century (see our Island page).]
1930 map of Orwell and Wet Dock
This map clearly shows the Stoke Bathing Place, a walled-off area for
Ipswich Swimming Club on the West Bank, now part of the container
depot. Further south is Nova Scotia House, home of the Nova Scotia
shipyard (with the 'Nova Scotia Point' mudbank in the river). Further
south again is 'Halifax Works Wharf' marking the site of the Halifax
shipyard. Both these very un-Suffolk names were used to describe their
surrounding areas (see also 'Greenwich', named after the farm over the river to the west of both
shipyards), somewhat to the mystification of the present-day
inhabitant. For more on Halifax see our page on 'The Whaling Station'. One tiny
feature, easily overlooked, is the 'Ferry' labelled on a dotted line
across New Cut between the end of Bath Street and the Island;
presumably one could walk down to Stoke Quay from Over Stoke, get the
ferry onto the fromer Promenade where the Umbrella shelter once stood,
across the small spit of land, over the swing bridge on the lock and
onto Ship Launch Road, Cliff Road and Cliff Quay.
See our Ransome's site
page for an 1867 map detail of the east bank of the Wet Dock.
Tramway and rail map of the Wet Dock
Map by
the Over Stoke History Group
The above, undated, map shows the height of industrial rail
transport
around the Wet Dock. The Griffin Wharf branch leaves the main line (and
sidings) at Halifax junction, south of the tunnel through Stoke Hill.
It crosses Wherstead Road via 'the Black Bridge', as it
was known to
many locals (see our Felaw
Street page for a 1959 photograph of a train on that bridge),
running parallel with Cowell Street (not shown here) and
curving northwards. Photographs of the tramway in 2014 at the end of
Bath Road can be found on our Felaw Street
page. However, far from stopping there, it is clear from the map that
in 1847 the orange-brown coloured line went all the way along New Cut
West to Paul's maltings and Ipswich Malting Company at the bottom of
Dock Street, with sub-branches
serving Cocksedge & Co. Ltd, Ransome & Rapier, Christopherson,
Watkins and the GER (Great Eatern Railway) coal depot.
For remnants of the tramways around the Wet Dock see our
Island and Dock ground level pages.
1973 map
The above map captures the Wet Dock area when trade and industry
were thriving in 1973. The West Bank Terminal has yet to be built (the
Stoke Bathing Place can still be seen below Griffin Wharf) and
ownership of business premises is labelled.
1994 diagram
1994 diagram
The above annotated aerial photograph of the Wet Dock
and New Cut has been taken from the book The Port of Ipswich published in
1994 by Ipswich Port Authority. At this date the Wet Dock is seen as a
more-or-less post-industrial area with one or two of the giant concrete
silos active, a ship moored at Three Cranes Wharf/Tovells Wharf and
very few leisure craft. The modernisation of Vernon Street and Hawes
Street (by-passing Wherstead Road) can be
seen at lower left with the
two new roundabouts in place and just above right, Felaw Street with
the restored Felaw Maltings and The Steamboat Tavern nearby. Comparing
this image with the dock map in the book, we find that south of the
'Orwell Quay' at No. 5 no mention is made of Gasworks Quay, Eagle Wharf
or on the opposite side of the River Orwell, Griffin Wharf. It is good
to find that The Harbour Master's Office
is labelled, a building which
has been abandoned for many years as far as we can see. Bob Jones
(co-author of the book A Victorian
Vision on the Wet Dock, see Reading List)
has uploaded an photograph of the structure with a note that he
was the Personnel Officer working from the building (1979 - 2000).
1884 map
1884 map
The above detail is taken from the map surveyed in 1882 and published
in 1884 available on the excellent NLS map project website (see Links under 'Specialist subject areas', then
'Maps'). At this time both locks into the Wet Dock are visible, but we
understand that the one which opened into New Cut was used less and
less, eventually to be filled in. The lock gates at the New Cut end are
labelled 'Foot Bridge', so that ladies and gentlemen who wished to walk
the Promenade to sit under 'The Umbrella' shelter next to the Pegasus
statue with views over Stoke Bathing Place on the west bank, and The
Cliff and Hog Highland on the east bank had to negotiate this narrow
right of way.
The Griffin and the tramway
However, some might take the 'Griffin Ferry' from the end of Bath
Street to the south of the Promenade. The Griffin branch tramway
crosses over the route to the foot ferry and stretches up to the end of
Bright Street. So why 'Griffin'? The Griffin Inn (named after the
mythical creature, half-eagle and half-lion) was at 160 New Cut West,
on the corner with Bath Street; active in the Victorian industrial
heyday, the pub closed in 1951. Inevitably, given its position opposite
the Cliff Brewery, it was a Tolly
Cobbold house. It was demolished to make way for an extension to the Ransomes & Rapier Waterside Works
(incidentally, the works features an oval tramway which doesn't link to
the network – puzzling). In 2018 the Griffin site is right next to the
Tidal Barrier which is designed to protect many low-lying properties
upriver from combinations of high tides, winds and rainfall. The Island
tramway extends from St Peter's Wharf along the isthmus to the northern
part of the Island; the upper lock prevents its extension south to the
new lock, over which a Ransomes & Rapier swing bridge was
eventually built to carry rail traffic over the lock and on to Cliff
Quay. 'St Clement's Ship Yard' is clearly shown with its slipway into
the river. It is where the Sailing Barge Victor was built, a vessel
which, in the 21st century, has a new life for pleasure cruises and
parties.
Features on the map
Interesting little features can be spotted on the 1884 map. A 'Manure
Works', presumably processing coprolites and phosphate-rich nodules as
fertiliser, stands south of The Griffin when most people know only of
Edward Packard's Manure Factory across the dock on Coprolite Street. Further south is Nova Scotia House, former home of naval
architect Richard Gower. We also note another pub, The Lock Tavern, on
the Island site, close to 'The Basin'.
Closed in 1955, it was converted into flats, then later demolished. The
view across New Cut from the tavern would be the gardens and grid-like
buildings of the Ipswich Union Workhouse
in Great Whip Street.
The 1880 Public Warehouse is clearly marked on the Island and still
stands today. Looking west, streets running down to New Cut West which
have disappeared are Bright Street and Harland Street with Kemp Street
crossing the former. Hawes Street is running north-south at this time
linking Harland Street and Felaw Street:
quite a narrow thoroughfare which was to become the main traffic route
linking a widened Vernon Street with the lower part of Whertsead Road.
Station Street stops at the undeveloped Rectory Road (which ran to the
rectory of St Mary-At-Stoke Church, which is now part of the Maidenhall
development); Luther Road does not exist. St
Peter's Vicarage is clearly visible off Austin Street.
Ipswich Dock Act 1805 map: PLAN of the Proposed Improvement of the
RIVER ORWELL, from Ipswich to Freston Reach Sep. 20 1804.
[UPDATE 25.11.2013: Peter
Turtill has sent this map covering the point of the Handford Road
bridge at the left down to the Orwell to Downham Reach below Freston Tower (marked lower right), almost
forty years before the Wet Dock was built.]
The river and town turned on its side is difficult to decipher, so we
have reorientated the future Wet Dock area below. The navigable channel
is delineated in the middle of the river with its named reaches (Pigeon
Locker Shoal, Cliff Reach, Lime Kiln Reach, Hog Island – known to many
as 'Hog Highland' – Reach etc.) in 1804 when the map was drawn.
Proposed newly cut shipping channels are clearly marked. Bourne
Bridge Creek is the vertical inlet in the lower centre with, to its
left
'Halifax Ship Yard' and, further left, 'Nova Scotia' (Shipyard), both
off Wherstead Road. Around the
town end of the river are places labelled 'Embanked Marsh' and they
give some sense of the problematic, low-lying land hereabouts from
before Anglo Saxon times, which hindered develoment until drainage
schemes helped to make the land passable later in the century. We have
already seen the problems faced by builders in the Alderman Road area
when the Tramway power station was
built and St Mary-At-Quay church still
suffers from the ooze upon which it was built. Reference has also been
made to the 'Corporation Marshes'
overlooked by Thomas Cartwright's Stoke Hall
and the nearby church.
It is perhaps significant that a large, low-lying section of what we
now call 'Over Stoke' to the west of Wherstead Road is labelled as
'Embanked Marsh', which would explain why Stoke remained as a small
village until the industrial revolution. It is not a surprise to the
present day inhabitant of Ipswich that the road leading from The Ostrich down Freston foreshore is
labelled: 'The Water frequently in the Spring Tides flows up to This
Road'. Similarly the shoreline between Greenwich Farm and Downham Reach
Farm is labelled: 'Gravelly Beach covered only in extraordinary Spring
Tides'.

Swivelling the Wet Dock detail of the map clockwise (below) is helpful
as it
places it in the customary orientation. It is notable that in 1804 the
River Orwell was considered to flow from the west to Stoke Bridge (what we now call The
Gipping) and 'The River Gipping' looped over from the north to join it
near the 'Tide Mill Reservoir'. The principle so clearly demonstrated
by Woodbridge Tide Mill, only a few miles away from Ipswich, relies on
trapping the tidal waters in a large mill pool using sluices. The
miller then had a reserve of power to drive the mill using gravity once
the tide had receded. With drainage and river redirection and
canalisation in more recent times we now consider that The Gipping
(fresh water) meets The Orwell (brackish or salt water) at a point
roughly west of Stoke Bridge. The characteristic Wet Dock right-angled
shape is here seen in its open form with successive revetments built
for unloading and loading ships raising and flattening out what had
been marshy ground. In 1804 the south west of the dock is still
labelled 'Mr Fulcher's Ooze'; this gives an indication that the area
would have looked very different then. One wonders what benefit Mr
Fulcher got from ownership of his ooze; perhaps he hung onto it until
selling it for redevelopment of New Cut and The Island site created in 1842.
Ogilby’s dock map of 1674
1674
map
This section of Ogilby's 1674 map shows the 'natural' dock with revetments
forming the northern and eastern quays and shipyards and with marshland
over a large part of the south and west. Our Felaw
Street page includes a close-up of the Great Whip Street crossing
from this source.
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Historic Lettering site: Borin Van Loon
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