44 REPORT — 1856. 



Iteport -upon the effects produced upoji the Channels of the Mersey by the 



alterations which, during the last jifty years, have been made in its Banks, 



071 the Tides of the prese7it period compared with the Tides registered by 



Mr. Rendel in June 1844. By Andrew Henderson. 



It may be premised that the discussion on the subject, in June ISM, was 



with reference to the proposed bill for establishing docks at Birkenhead ; it was 



urged by Liverpool authorities that this would reduce the level of the river 



by abstracting so large an area as 150 acres. The state of the river, then, 



may be based on the tidal observations of Mr. Rendel at six stations, giving 



diagrams of height of tide from Victoria Bar to Warrington Bridge, as 



follows : — 



TIME AND HEIGHT OF HIGH WATER. 

 Datum, Prince's Bock Sill {six feet beloto the Old Bock Sill), taken from Mr. Rendel's 



Biagrams. 

 Spring Tide, June 3, 1846. June 10, 1844, Neap Tide. 



Time. Height. Time. Height, 



h m ft. in. h m ft. in. No. 



1. Formby Point 12 20.. 23 4 6 50.. 17 9.. 1. 



2. New Brighton .... 12 30 .. 23 .... 7 .. 17 7 .. 2. 



3. Prince's Dock 12 50 .. 23 8 .... 7 10 . . 18 2 . . 3. 



4. EUesmere Point 1 10 . . 24 7 7 40 .. 18 7 . . 4. 



5. Runcorn. 1 25 . . 25 4 . . . . 8 . . 19 . . 5. 



6. Fidler's Ferry 1 50 . . 25 2 8 55 . . 18 10 . . 6. 



7. Warrington Bridge. . 2 30.. 2510 940.. 18 8.. 7. 



These observations were taken simultaneously ; and it may be seen that, 



at the Prince's Pier, which is in the narrowest gorge of the e.stuary, the tide 

 heaps up 8 inches and 7 inches in the two miles from New Brighton. The 

 velocity of the flood tide at Seacombe is recorded as 721 1 feet per second, 

 the width of the Mersey being there reduced to 3060 feet, and the sectional 

 area 184,622 feet, it being altogether a gorge at that point defined by the 

 Prince's Dock wall on the one side, and the natural rock of Seacombe on 

 the other. 



This has been aptly designated the neck of the bottle, extending one mile 

 ft'om Egremont Ferry to Seacombe Ferry, where the Mersey is half a mile 

 broad to Prince's Pier, extending about one mile to the old fort before the 

 Stanley Dock was begun in 1844, at which time the mouth of the Mersey 

 bottle was between Egremont and the old fort, from whence a curved wall 

 half a mile east to Beacon's Gutter was built in 1833, the north shore to 

 Rimrose Brook (some three and a half miles) forming with the shore from 

 Seacombe to New Brighton what may be termed the funnel for filling the 

 bottle of the Mersey. 



These positions are exhibited on the map appended to the Report of Mr. 

 James Walker, C.E., to the conservators of the River Mersey, on the effects 

 of the new north river-line of the Liverpool docks on the Cheshire shore, 

 published June 1856, pp. 306, with abstract notes of evidence. 



As these documents contain much valuable information bearing on the 

 effects produced on the channels of the Mersey by the alteration made in 

 its banks, the following extracts are given, premising that the complaint was 

 the waste of the Cheshire shore about Egremont. The Report states, there 

 is no reason to doubt that an increase of damage has taken place and is con- 

 tinuing, and that the Liverpool dock walls are the principal cause. 



" One thing is certain, that the Liverpool dock trustees have acquired since 

 1844 an area of not less than 500 acres of land from the river; upon this 

 they have made splendid docks, and are now proceeding to add to them for 

 the benefit of the country, on a greater scale than they have hitherto done. 



