194 BRIDPORT HARBOUR. 



During the year 1824 the engineer, Francis Giles, employed 

 200 men in carrying out his scheme, as we are told in a west 

 country journal of that date. The rebuilding took place upon 

 the site of the 1740 harbour, the chief improvement being the 

 excavation of a basin east and west of the river sluice, which 

 was itself renewed, but without the former " navigable gates." 

 Wooden piles were still used for the two piers until 1866, 

 when Sir John Coode, who had been engaged in building 

 Portland Breakwater, advised that the interior cavities should 

 be filled with rubble concrete and stone, which was done. 



The means of communication shared in the remodelling ; 

 an Act had been obtained in 1819 for connecting the harbour 

 and the town by a direct and more level road through the river 

 valley, in place of the longer route which had branched from 

 the highway to Burton Bradstock. This alteration avoided 

 the old gradients and greatly helped the working of traffic 

 to and from the shore. The new enterprise had a welcome 

 effect upon the volume of trade, as may be learned from the 

 official figures showing the number of vessels which entered 

 the channel before and after the enlargement. In 1820 there 

 were 256 ; in 1825, 448 ; in 1830, 528. The expenditure 

 incurred would, therefore, appear to have been fully warranted 

 by the result. Indeed, about that time a project had been 

 entertained for converting the river into a ship canal as far 

 as the town, the fall being only eleven inches, but the idea did 

 not get beyond the stage of discussion. Bridport did, how- 

 ever, obtain in 1832 fulfilment of her ambition to become a 

 " bond-port," having previously been a " creek " under the 

 Custom House at Lyme. (It will be remembered that Charles 

 II. agreed to this advancement in 1670, but the promise 

 did not materialise.) The formalities preliminary to and 

 after the setting up of the Custom House are of sufficient 

 local interest to justify an abstract of the Exchequer docu- 

 ments relating to the subject : 



31 Jan. 2 William IV. (1832). A commission directs certain 

 persons to assign and appoint an open place at the harbour of 

 Bridport for the shipping and landing of goods. A certificate and 



