Penzance 1850
treeve

Penzance 1850

The growing town
Penzance Harbour in 1850

With the harbour pool now fully protected, more ships berth; note the ship berthed to directly offload to the Gas Works;
I suspect this quay may have had a lock gate, it is a sizeable ship to be mud bound and could add strain above her capablity.
Lower land is being reclaimed and is built upon, each of these buildings are on a high base to allow for the incoming tide;
the high cliff can be seen between New Street Slip and the wall where the Dry Dock is now;
at that time, the dry dock faced east-west.
In 1850, the rocks to the east of Albert Pier were largely covered with sand;
it has been scoured out by the change in currents by the Albert Pier being built.
A small length of quay had been built by 1865 in front of the Custom House and Boat Store,
with a slip directly out into the water. Custom House is hidden here by the dark ship; to the right of it, the Boat Store.
To the right of St Mary's Church, on the water front below, is Coulson's Granary,
with two large tower vents at each end of the roof, to keep the grain dry.
Across the front of the building is a timber baulk protection for the ships,
as they tie up, to have their cargo taken directly into the granary.
The old stone retaining walling to the New Street Slip has been extended higher.
At the lower section of the picture, the old Chyandour Cliff can be seen, a carriageway and a footpath promenade,
which was intended to be continued across Chyandour to The Eastern Green,
until the advent of the railway,

and the cliff was to be changed a number of times to suit the requirements of the new transport age
(one occasion resulting in the demolition of the houses on the seaward side of the road at Chyandour).
The first railway station was to be built right next to the first house at the end of this promenade.
The next station was to be built by the demolition of the entire block of houses and the removal of part of the dark cliff.
On the top of the wall overlooking the station platforms, is a length of railing,
it was placed there to protect the roof of the old station, and is the only part remaining of that original station.

Raymond Forward
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Reactions: Craig Berryman
This one is particularly accurate; from the whole etching, I could work out the development of the map of Penzance from the 1842 Tithe map (which is also accurate, according to OS surveyors, to 99% accuracy compared to present satellite surveying techniques).
 

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