Heysham Port

Heysham Port in Heysham, Lancashire, England, ships mainly roll-on/roll-off freight, with one passenger service run by the Isle of Man Steam Packet Company, which operates a twice daily sailing to Isle of Man. There are three freight routes run by Seatruck Ferries and Stena Line which all sail to Ireland daily. Heysham Port railway station links it to Lancaster via Morecambe. Adjacent to the dock site is Heysham nuclear power station.

Heysham Port
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Location
Location	Heysham
Coordinates	54°2′11.93″N 2°54′49.61″W
Details
Built	1897
Opened	1904
Operated by	Mersey Docks and Harbour Company
Owned by	The Peel Group
Type of harbour	Artificial
No. of berths	3 (Ro-Ro)
Overall Quay Length	1,000 m (3,300 ft)[1]
Statistics
Passenger traffic	143,417 (2021)[2]

History

In 1891, the Midland Railway, which already operated Morecambe Harbour four miles to the north east, gave notice of its intention to develop a new harbour at Heysham and appointed consulting engineers James Abernethy and his son to undertake a feasibility study of the project. The plan was for an enclosed dock accessed through a lock, this idea made no further progress.

In 1895, a much larger Heysham port plan was put forward by Messrs James Abernethy & Son, in conjunction with the Midland Railway's chief engineer. This formed the basis of the harbour which was built, although there were many changes as work progressed and the full scheme was never completed. In 1896, an enabling Act of Parliament was obtained for the construction of the harbour and the contract for construction was let in July 1897. The project cost about £3 million.^[3][4]

The first ship to dock at Heysham was the Antrim, one of the ships that the Midland Railway had ordered for Heysham services. She came into the harbour on delivery from builders, John Brown at Clydebank on the 31st of May 1904. The first passenger sailing was a day trip to Douglas, Isle of Man by the Londonderry on the 13th of August 1904.

The south jetty was built in 1909 to reduce silt build up in the harbour entrance, plans from 1907 show that two jetties where originally planned each side of the entrance, but a north jetty was never actually built.

In 1941 a deep-water berth (Ocean Jetty) was built to the north east of harbour entrance. This was to allow tankers which were too large for the port to berth at the new Trimpell refinery which produced aviation fuel. Much of the fuel produced would have been for fighter aircraft stationed in Britain during World War II.^[5] After the Tranmere pipeline construction the Ocean Jetty berth was rarely used until its demolition in 1976.

Heysham Port was acquired by the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company (MDHC) in May 2001.^[6] Then in August 2005 the MDHC was bought by and merged with Peel Ports Limited.^[7]

Ships in operation

Vessels that currently operate out of Heysham Port.

Image	Name	Built (commissioned)	Route(s)	Capacity	Port of Registry	Company
	MS Ben-my-Chree	April 1998 (July 1998)	Heysham – Douglas	630 Passenger 275 Cars	Douglas	Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
	MV Manxman	June 2022	Heysham – Douglas	948 Passengers 237 Vehicles 75 Trailers	Douglas	Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
	HSC Manannan	November 1998 (May 2009)	Heysham – Douglas (Summer TT and cover for Dry docking only)	800+ passengers 200 vehicles	Douglas	Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
	MS Arrow	August 1998	Heysham- Douglas (Summer TT and Cover Dry docking Only)	12 Passengers 65 Trailers	Douglas	Isle of Man Steam Packet Company
	MS Stena Scotia	1996	Heysham – Belfast	114 trailers	Vlaardingen	Stena Line
	MS Stena Hibernia	1996	Heysham – Belfast	114 trailers	Vlaardingen	Stena Line
	MS Seatruck Panorama	November 2008 (January 2009)	Heysham – Dublin	120 trailers	Limassol	Seatruck Ferries
	MS Seatruck Precision	March 2012 (July 2012)	Heysham – Warrenpoint	151 trailers	Douglas	Seatruck Ferries
	MS Seatruck Performance	January 2012 (April 2012)	Heysham – Warrenpoint	151 trailers	Douglas	Seatruck Ferries

Current routes

The routes which Heysham port offers:

• Heysham – Dublin (Seatruck Ferries)
• Heysham – Warrenpoint (Seatruck Ferries)
• Heysham – Douglas (Isle of Man Steam Packet Co)
• Heysham – Belfast (Stena Line)

Image gallery

• North Quay
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• South Quay
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• Other Views
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References

1. "Ports and Harbours of the UK". ports.org. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
2. "Port passenger and freight traffic". Lancashire County Council. August 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2023.
3. Clague, Dick (2004). Heysham Port: a Century of Manx and Irish Services. Ramsey, Isle of Man: Ferry Publications Ltd. p. 11. ISBN 1-871947-75-8.
4. "Heysham port about us". Peel Ports. n.d. Retrieved 11 September 2014.
5. Clague, Dick (2004). Heysham Port: a Century of Manx and Irish Services. Ramsey, Isle of Man: Ferry Publications Ltd. p. 37. ISBN 1-871947-75-8.
6. "Port plans rosy future". The Visitor. 14 June 2001. Retrieved 3 November 2011.
7. "Anticipated acquisition by Peel Ports Limited of the Mersey Docks and Harbour Company" (PDF). Office of Fair Trading. 24 May 2005. Retrieved 27 July 2023.

External links

• Official website

54.03394°N 2.91696°W / 54.03394; -2.91696