PIERS The – Redcar and Coatham Piers

Accreditation The Redcar and Saltburn-by-the-Sea Gazette 24/03/1871    

The Piers, an erroneous report.
(Editorial)

An erroneous report, prejudicial to the interests of the Redcar pier, has of late been circulated, to the effect that the pier is to be built “for the benefit of Redcar fishermen, who are to have the free use of it at all times for all purposes,” (we quote the words of a contemporary); and we think it necessary to call attention to the fact that such is not the case; and, further, that the very words of the clause in the application for the provisional order, which are supposed to support the conclusion, expressly contradicted.

The clause is as follows: –

fishermen and pilots, being inhabitants of Redcar, shall at all times have free ingress, passage, and egress to, on, along and from the pier, without payment for the purpose of embarking in, or disembarking from, their respective boats at the pier, when about to exercise or having exercised their respective calling as fishermen or pilots, but not for any other purpose; and on such occasions no rates or tolls that shall be chargeable on fishermen and pilots of their boats.

The object of the clause, so far as we are aware, is to secure to the fishermen and pilots the free use of the pier on such occasions as they may happen to require it, viz, in stress of whether or adverts winds: four at all other times it is perfectly obvious to all but the most prejudiced that the so-called use of the pier by fishermen “for all purposes” would not only be useless but absolutely injurious to them, as we shall presently show. But, were this otherwise, the directors have ample power to restrain any one true use of the pier, either by fishermen or others, in the concluding clause of the existing provisional order of 1866, with which the amendment order of 1871 – as stipulated by the concluding clause of the latter – must be construed. The clause we refer to is as follows; –

15. Nothing in this order shall entitle any person with any vessel or boat to ship or ownership at the pier authorised by this order any sheep, cattle, or merchandise, or to ship or ownership there anything which in the judgement of the company might in any manner interfere with the use of the pier for recreation, for the embarking or landing of passengers.

This effectually disposes of the notion that the fishermen will have the option of causing nuisance on the pier by shipping or shipping fish and bait, which we do not for a moment believe they ever intended to do, or even thought of; but had they so wished, most certainly no such power has been or will be granted them. Having disposed of this part of the question, we now propose to show that the use of the pier by fishermen for “all purposes and at all times” would be prejudicial and that even the ordinary use of it would be injurious to their interests.

1^st because of the immense increase of labour it would entail.

2^nd because of the serious loss of time it would involve

And, lastly, because their boats could not be so mauled as to enable to use the pier constantly even for the ordinary avocations.

To prove that these conclusions are correct, we only need state that the fish market is on the beach, and that the great object of the fishermen is to get the fish landed without delay, and with as little labour as possible. To effect this, the mode which they at present pursue, and which their forefathers have pursued from time immemorial, even from the time that the fishermen of Redcar supplied the monks of Guisborough with fish, is to land their boats, draw them up to the fish market, and dispose of the fish to the highest bidder. The use of the pier for this purpose would require the packing of the fish in hampers in their boats whilst at sea carrying it the whole length of the pier, and then again on packing it at the place of sale.

We may add that the fishermen as a body repudiate the notion that they will have any connection with the pier other than its occasional use under the circumstances we have indicated.