Parkeston

Parkeston
Essex
Parkeston Quay, Harwich International Port
Location
Grid reference:	TM236319
Location:	51°56’27"N, 1°15’11"E
Data
Population:	932  (2018 est.)
Post town:	Harwich
Postcode:	CO12
Dialling code:	01255
Local Government
Council:	Tendring
Parliamentary constituency:	Harwich and North Essex

Parkeston is a North Sea port village in Essex, standing on the south bank of the River Stour about one mile up-river from Harwich. In 2018 it had an estimated population of 932.

This village was founded in the 1880s by the Great Eastern Railway Company.

History

In the 1880s, reclaimed land that had been Ray Island was developed by the Great Eastern Railway Company as a railway depot for import/export trade with Europe. The new port was named 'Parkeston Quay', after Charles Henry Parkes (1816–1895), Chairman of the company. The existing railway line was re-routed to pass through the port, although the original railway embankment, through an overgrown area known locally as The Hangings, still exists. Most of the terraced housing in Parkeston was built for railway employees and some of the streets in the village have names that can be theoretically linked to the shipping and general activities of the railway, examples being Tyler Street (paddle steamer The Lady Tyler), Hamilton Street (paddle steamer Claud Hamilton), Adelaide Street (paddle steamer Adelaide) and Princess Street (paddle steamer Princess of Wales).

Claud Hamilton, a former chairman of the Railway, also gave his name to Hamilton Park, the extensive playing fields between the village and the station/quay area.

Parkeston is known locally as "Spike Island" or "Cinder City". The "Cinder City" name was particularly appropriate given the large areas of marshland or saltings that were reclaimed, frequently using waste material from the railway activities.

There are very few examples of villages established by a railway company to house its workers for an extensive railway and shipping service. This operation also included a locomotive shed and extensive marine workshops to service a fleet of vessels based at the port, which comprised up to a dozen ferries and cargo vessels at its peak.

From early in the 20th century, major passenger ferry services were developed, mainly to the Hook of Holland (with the slogan "Harwich to the Hook of Holland") and later to Esbjerg in Denmark. During both World Wars Parkeston served as an important naval base. Parkeston Quay is now named Harwich International Port and the railway station is named Harwich International. Parkeston is also now faced, across the Stour estuary, by the United Kingdom's busiest container port, the Port of Felixstowe.

Harwich Gateway Retail Park

Other than the port, the area of Parkeston that has seen the largest expansion in recent years is Harwich Gateway Retail Park, a retail district located in what is otherwise known as Iconfield Park, an area of land next to the port on the outskirts of Parkeston. The first shop to be built in the location was Safeway, a supermarket that opened in March 1997. It has since expanded, with many well known national and international chains.

Timeline

• 1883: Parkeston Quay was officially opened by Charles H. Parkes, Chairman of the Great Eastern Railway Company.
• 1914–1918: The 8th and 9th submarine flotillas of the Royal Navy were based at Parkeston Quay, including all of the E-class submarines. Between 1916 and 1917, four submarines sank as a result of collisions outside the harbour: HMS E4, HMS E41, HMS C16 and HMS E36. Although the first three craft were salvaged, only 15 crew survived.
• 1917: Section II of the wartime Board of Invention and Research established a research station at the Quay under Sir William Bragg and Sir Ernest Rutherford to investigate the use of ASDIC and electro-magnetism to detect submarines.
• 1918: 113 submarines of the German fleet surrendered to the Royal Navy Submarine Service at Parkeston Quay on 20 November, a day before the High Seas Fleet surrendered at Scapa Flow.
• 1939: Parkeston Quay was again requisitioned by the Admiralty for naval purposes, during which time it was known as HMS Badger, until 1945.
• 1946: The quay suffered extensive damage in air raids during the Second World War.
• 1953: One of the Harwich-based ferries, the Duke of York, had her bows completely cut off in a collision with an American cargo ship, and the Danish passenger liner Kronprins Frederik caught fire while docked and capsized alongside the quay. Both casualties sat together in adjacent berths awaiting repair.

The village also suffered very severe flooding in the East Coast Floods of that springtime. The railway embankment which also acted as the sea wall was breached south of the loco shed immediately east of the village.

• 1964: The Carless oil refinery opened next to the port, adding oil tankers to the traffic.
• 1974: The ro-ro ship St Edmund came into service and remained on the Hook route until being requisitioned by the UK Ministry of Defence in 1982 as a troop ship during the Falklands War.
• 1983: The St Nicholas, the largest superferry on the North Sea at that time, commenced service from Harwich.
• 1986: More than 2 million passengers annually passed through the port for the first time.
• 1989: Last call of the MS Braemar and end of the summer service to Kristiansand, Norway, which had been operated by Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines since 1967.
• 1992: Construction of No.2 linkspan was completed, in readiness for vessels of 656 feet length.
• 1994: The annual number of trade vehicles moving through the port peaked at nearly 270,000.
• 1997: A£12 million development was completed to accommodate the Stena Discovery high-speed ferry.
• 1998: Harwich International Port became part of Hutchison Ports (UK) Ltd, a subsidiary of the multinational conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa Ltd (HWL), which also owns through subsidiaries the Port of Felixstowe.

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Parkeston)