page_title: Preston Dock
section_title: Operation
hierarchical_section_title: Preston Dock / Albert Edward Basin and Dock / Operation
caption_attribution_description: English: Ships moored at Albert Edward Dock, Preston, c.1930
context_page_description: Preston Dock was a former maritime dock located on the northern bank of the River Ribble approximately 2.5 km west of Preston's town centre in Lancashire, England. It is the location of the Albert Edward Basin which opened in 1892 and is connected to the river by a series of locks.
  The dock is 25.6 km from the Irish Sea and provided a port for shipping until its closure in 1981. Most of the historic buildings and facilities have since been demolished and the area is now mainly commercial and residential property, along with some light industry. Following the dock's closure, a public marina was opened in 1987.
context_section_description: The new dock was not an immediate success, used by just four vessels in its first year of operation; however, by 1900 this number had grown to 170 and the future appeared rosy. The creation of the Preston Dock Branch Line railway in the 1840s, and later extensions in the 1890s and 1920s, allowed goods to be transported directly to and from ships, minimising loading and unloading times and providing the Port of Preston with a competitive advantage over other nearby ports.
  Over the course of its history the dock handled a wide variety of general cargoes. Incoming vessels would unload raw cotton, timber, china
  clay, fruit (including bananas and citrus from the West Indies), wheat, horses, cattle, coal, petroleum products, fishmeal, fertilisers, and wood pulp and esparto grass for paper making. Out-going vessels were mostly loaded with cotton products and other textiles from Preston's mills, and later manufactured goods from the town's growing industries. Pre-World War I saw a rise in popularity in excursion steamers operating from the docks providing day trips to nearby destinations, and post-World War II saw the introduction of passenger and vehicular ferry services to Northern Ireland. During both world wars the docks were used by the military for general wartime cargo and strategic operations, including the D-Day landings in 1944.
  The dock's quayside facilities were developed to match the rising trade, originally handling bulk cargo but later upgraded to containerised service, the first dock in the UK to provide such a facility. Trade increased throughout the 1950s so much so that the charge for the port that had been levied on Preston residents’ rates bills since the opening of the dock was finally cancelled. Large quantities of fruit were being imported from the Winward and Leeward Islands; in one year the entire citrus crop from Dominica and Saint Lucia came through the port.
  The period 1960–1972 was the busiest in the dock's history, and peak volume was reached in 1968 when 2.5 million tons of trade passed through the port. However, the Dockers Strikes of 1969 and 1970 severely disrupted the port's ferry services and deterred much of its foreign traffic and resulted in a noticeable fall in revenue, a trend that was not to be reversed. The docks continued to experience a steady decrease in trade, including the abandonment of ferry services, and in 1975 the first serious financial trouble began after an operating loss of £1.5m, the largest in the port's history, was reported.
  Constant dredging of the Ribble proved a huge burden upon the port's revenue; in 1975 45% of the dock's income was spent on dredging operations. A report to the then Preston Borough Council in September 1979 advised that there was no future prospect for operating the port at a profit and it was resolved that the docks should be closed and the area redeveloped.
caption: Ships moored at Albert Edward Dock, c.1930
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