Coast

Fishing has always been important for this coast town, as any town needs something to rely on for food.

The sea didn’t just feed the townspeople, it also gave them the means to pursue a living.

Coal mining and shipbuilding made this Georgian town and trade brought goods to the quays never before seen in the country.

Millennium Promenade

The first mention of Whitehaven as a harbour comes from 1172, but the foundation for the first quay was laid in 1633 by Christopher Lowther of the important Lowther family.

Since completion of that first quay in 1634, Whitehaven went on to become the second most important port in England after London.

The trade today

Today Whitehaven harbour no longer sees the amount of trade vessels that used to occupy the harbour. Looking out from the starting point out over the harbour, the closest dock is the Queen’s Dock which used to be the only wet dock in the harbour.

Melanie Park - Berthing Manager

It was here where the vessels came in on the tide and unloaded their cargo be it rope for the Brocklebank's shipbuilding industry on North Harbour or later, grain for the Beacon Mills at the same site.

Now Queen’s Dock has become Queen’s Marina and the commercial use has shifted to leisure use with sailing boats and yatchs on the pontoons.

Melanie Park is the berthing manager for Whitehaven harbour and Marina and has been working hard on the shift from commercial use to leisure use.

“Fishing has decreased over the last few years, and our leisure industry is thriving here in the harbour so we thought we’d invest in some more space for leisure vessels.”

Walking along Queen’s Marina, the remnants from the old sea lock still remains. When these were in use, the vessels had to negotiate round the harbour by twisting and turning round the quays by inching along the harbour-side.

Ropes and springs were fastened to bollards and ships were squeezed into the Queen’s Dock when the tide was in.

As the tide went out again, the ships were in safety and could be loaded and unloaded accordingly and then just laid there waiting for the tide to come in again. We will come to the modern sea lock a bit further down on the walk.

Fishing still brings home the bacon

On our right hand side, the fish hall provides the other major source of income for the modern harbour. This area can at certain times be very busy and people are advised to use the pathway on the back of the fish hall.

Sea fishery officer David Dobson knows what the Irish Sea can bring - and where the trends are going.

"There are certain species - cod are in trouble, we know about that. I have to say, my own personal opinion is that it isn't just over-fishing that's causing the problems with cod. I think there are other things to take into consideration."

Mr Dobson contiues;

"If you're talking about fish stocks generally ... there seems to be plenty of prawns around, plaice stocks are definitely healthy."

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeew

"Skate is another local fishery, they've made a real come-back in the last three or four years. We see more skate landed now than I can recall for the last 20 years" Mr Dobson says.

The newly-built fish hall stands on the same site as the old Beacon Mills, which before that was the Brocklebank's shipyard.

Ex-harbour master Capt. David Allan, who is our harbour guide, tells us what’s underneath the surface.

“When we were excavating to re-surface the harbour, we found passage ways all over the harbour area and from the place outside the Quaker Oats warehouse we stumbled upon a fully tiled passageway, complete with a conveyer belt!

“It was probably used to transport the oats that came from Liverpool to another site in town. Unfortunately we had to fill some of it in to secure the quay, but it’s nice to know what’s down there.”

Excursion from the walk

Past the fish hall, the North Pier stretches out into the Solway Firth.

The surface is very uneven, but it’s a nice walk out to the lighthouse built in 1841 – if anything the views are spectacular and on a clear day you will have undisturbed views of the Solway Coast and the distant Scottish mountains.

Coming back in towards the harbour and continuing past the ice-plant which supplies the fishing boats with much needed ice for their catches, you’ll come up to the sea lock.

North Pier

Designed in the same style as the harbour-side museum the Beacon, the Pier house was opened in 1998.

The sea locks themselves not only let the inner harbour stay water-filled at all times, the massive doors also acts as flood defences.

For centuries, the town was flooded by fierce storms, but with the help of the Environment Agency, the sea lock now help keep the town dry.

It's also the gateway to the Irish Sea, and it's manned 24 hours a day, letting boats in and out independently of the tides.

In our picture gallery, you can see the sea lock in action, just click on the link in the right hand column.