David Barnicoat was only eight months into his role as Falmouth Packet shipping writer when he was able to reveal one of the biggest and most ambitious, and no doubt controversial, development projects ever to involve the port and its neighbourhood.
That’s how he worded it anyway – he “revealed” it. It was all (or almost all) written in the present tense and presented as fact, and it was published in October, 1988, not on April 1.
Even the caption for the definitive map read “work should start on this new terminal at the end of March.”
David, who took over the Packet port page from me and is still writing it 38 years later – which must be some sort of record, surely – was clearly relishing (aka on this occasion having fun with) his new role.
“This plan,” he said, “could one day revolutionise the Fal estuary, transforming the sleepy village of St Just In Roseland into an internationally recognised passenger liner and cargo handling terminal.”
Here’s how David’s report continued:--
Called the St Just (Falmouth) Ocean Wharves and Railway Development, the new docks complex, consisting of enclosed docks, deep water berths and graving docks, would stretch from St Mawes to Turnaware.
Principal architect of the scheme is the Railways and General Development Board, who envisage St Just being a major threat to the ports of Southampton and Plymouth if the financial backing is forthcoming.
Centred on St Just, the multi-million pound St Just Ocean Terminal scheme would involve a huge dredging and reclamation programme, especially to the south where large areas of outstanding underwater beauty and live maerl beds would have to be buried under thousands of tonnes of infill.
To the north towards Turnaware the problem is somewhat smaller with the proposed construction of an enclosed dock system, coupled with the erection of warehouses on the foreshore to accommodate cargo.
The total reclamation of St Just creek is seen as vital to the new port in order to provide the necessary land required for the massive railway marshalling area and the construction of a graving dock capable of handling the largest liners.
St Just (Ocean Terminal) railway station may well be sited near to the beautiful 13th Century church, keeping passengers away from the main cargo handing areas.
Vitally important to the newly-found cargo passenger trade is the proposed railway link that will join the main line between Probus and St Austell, thus providing an expeditious route from the port.
Strictly from a marine point of view, the idea is well conceived as it utilises the natural topography of the estuary to provide deep water berths easily accessible at all states of the tide.
Although only at the drawing board stage, indications are that the design of the new port will only have a minimal effect on the prevailing tidal conditions found in the harbour.
Like the container port project, there may be a few hiccups over environmentally sensitive issues, but in general terms the concept of creating a deep water port within the sheltered confines of the harbour and with improved rail links is to be congratulated.
Since the early 1900s, it has generally been admitted that Falmouth Docks were constructed on the wrong side of the harbour so far as deep-drafted vessels were concerned.
Alas, as might be said about some of the other big projects for Falmouth down the ages, this plan ultimately belonged to the realms of fantasy, as David confirmed in his final paragraph:--
(For those who haven’t clicked, this plan was first mooted by a Mr Ryan in 1909 and has not been considered as a serious proposition for nigh on 80 years.)
No comments:
Post a Comment