Successive engineering reports were confident that the lack of breakwaters were allowing tides to deposit silt in the harbour and river, and stated that the construction of piers would not only minimise this, but would effect safer passage in and out of the port during heavy weather. Before the widening and deepening of the harbour entrance, the north and south shorelines had been so close to each other that Monkwearmouth children had been able to throw stones at their East End adversaries on the opposite bank.
It is said that prior to the RWC dredging work, during low spring tides fishwives waded from shore to shore with baskets of fish, and that a Monkwearmouth man had earlier crossed the river in waders to focus attention on the shallowness of the harbour entrance.
The RWC commissioned reports from several engineers, all of whom advocated the construction of north and south piers. Initiated in 1723 under the direction of RWC chief engineer James Fawcett, the (inner) south pier was completed nine years later at a length of 1,000 feet, but continuing siltage led to the pier being lengthened. An article in the Gentlemens Magazine of 1755 gave a brief report on the progress of engineering on the river.
Fifteen years prior to the 1796 construction of Rowland Burdon's Wearmouth Bridge, RWC chief engineer Robert Shout had proposed a crossing at the same point by means of a bridge of stone, consisting of two 90 feet spans with an 18-feet-square central pier. Owing to perceived navigation complications, the plan was abandoned. In 1786, Shout began work on the (inner) North Pier, to a plan endorsed by Gateshead's John Smeaton, who had built the Eddystone Lighthouse. Shout formed a 350 feet long structure, which was completed by his successor Jonathon Pickernell in 1797. The building of the pier caused silt to create the North Sands, which in the 19th century would become home to numerous shipyards, though James Collin had been building in that vicinity since 1737.
A former master mariner, in 1802 Pickernell added an octagonal-shaped lighthouse (left) at what was then the end of the North Pier, and erected stone-built cottages for the two light keepers. The structure stood 78 feet high, was 15 feet wide at base and weighed 338 tons. Fed by its own gasometer, the light had nine Argand gas-fired beacons and an oil-fired back-up system. The reflectors were assembled to a design by Mathew Boulton & James Watts at their Soho Works in Birmingham. [Prior to the construction of the lighthouse, the only forewarning of the harbour mouth had been an oil lantern suspended from a flagstaff].
It is said that prior to the RWC dredging work, during low spring tides fishwives waded from shore to shore with baskets of fish, and that a Monkwearmouth man had earlier crossed the river in waders to focus attention on the shallowness of the harbour entrance.
The RWC commissioned reports from several engineers, all of whom advocated the construction of north and south piers. Initiated in 1723 under the direction of RWC chief engineer James Fawcett, the (inner) south pier was completed nine years later at a length of 1,000 feet, but continuing siltage led to the pier being lengthened. An article in the Gentlemens Magazine of 1755 gave a brief report on the progress of engineering on the river.
Fifteen years prior to the 1796 construction of Rowland Burdon's Wearmouth Bridge, RWC chief engineer Robert Shout had proposed a crossing at the same point by means of a bridge of stone, consisting of two 90 feet spans with an 18-feet-square central pier. Owing to perceived navigation complications, the plan was abandoned. In 1786, Shout began work on the (inner) North Pier, to a plan endorsed by Gateshead's John Smeaton, who had built the Eddystone Lighthouse. Shout formed a 350 feet long structure, which was completed by his successor Jonathon Pickernell in 1797. The building of the pier caused silt to create the North Sands, which in the 19th century would become home to numerous shipyards, though James Collin had been building in that vicinity since 1737.
A former master mariner, in 1802 Pickernell added an octagonal-shaped lighthouse (left) at what was then the end of the North Pier, and erected stone-built cottages for the two light keepers. The structure stood 78 feet high, was 15 feet wide at base and weighed 338 tons. Fed by its own gasometer, the light had nine Argand gas-fired beacons and an oil-fired back-up system. The reflectors were assembled to a design by Mathew Boulton & James Watts at their Soho Works in Birmingham. [Prior to the construction of the lighthouse, the only forewarning of the harbour mouth had been an oil lantern suspended from a flagstaff].
Need for Dredging
