Whitstable Harbour from an early engineer's plan
Sidings at Whitstable Harbour in April 1951.
Whitstable Harbour from an early engineer's plan |
Sidings at Whitstable Harbour in April 1951. |
Whitstable Harbour was formally opened on 19th March 1832 and a facility was introduced "whereby goods will be transmitted from the ship to their destination in Canterbury without being shifted in the interval...". This must have been one of the first examples of integrated sea and rail container transport. In 1836 the Canterbury and Whitstable Steam Packet Company successfully established a thrice weekly service to London with stagecoach connections at Canterbury for Dover and Ashford: at that time neither of these towns had direct rail links to London.
The harbour at Whitstable suffered badly from silting and the South Eastern Railway (SER) constructed a new sluice which solved these problems at that time.
Please feel free to contact me by e-mail at elliottsimpson@hotmail.com
Feb 2006