Harwich
Harwich is a port town and civil parish in the Tendring district of Essex, England. It is one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on-Sea to the south. It is the northernmost coastal town in Essex.
Its position on the estuaries of the Stour and Orwell rivers, with its usefulness to mariners as one of the safest ports between the Thames and the Humber, led to a long period of civil and military maritime significance. The town became a naval base in 1657 and was heavily fortified, with Harwich Redoubt, Beacon Hill Battery, and Bath Side Battery.
The Mayflower, which carried English Puritans to North America, was registered with Harwich as its home port, and Harwich is the presumed birthplace of Mayflower captain Christopher Jones.
The historic core of the town stands at the end of a peninsula. The built up area now extends westwards from the peninsula to included Dovercourt, which has been administered as part of Harwich since at least the 17th century. There are few retail facilities in the historic core of Harwich today, and Dovercourt now has the main retail town centre for the built up area. The main port facilities of Harwich International Port are now at Parkeston, about upstream on the Stour from the old town's quays.
At the 2021 census, the population of the parish of Harwich was 18,794, and the population of the built up area as defined by the Office for National Statistics was 20,215.
History
The town's name means "military settlement", from Old English here-wic.Roman remains have been found in the area. In 885 the River Stour north of the town was the location for the two battles.
Harwich was anciently part of the manor and parish of Dovercourt. The original village of Dovercourt was at what is now known as Upper Dovercourt, a little way inland. In 1177, a chapel of ease was recorded at Harwich, which was probably a very small settlement at that time. It was not until the Duke of Norfolk as lord of the manor obtained the right to hold a market at Harwich in 1253 that the town began to develop more significantly. Harwich was granted its first charter making it a borough in 1318. The town was deemed to be a separate parish for civil purposes by the 16th century, but remained part of the ecclesiastical parish of Dovercourt until 1871, when its chapel of St Nicholas was upgraded to being a parish church.
The town was the target of an abortive raid by French forces under Antonio Doria on 24 March 1339 during the Hundred Years' War.
The town is known to have been granted several borough charters in medieval times, but the earliest surviving charter was issued in 1604. This charter confirms that the borough covered the whole area of the two parishes of Harwich St Nicholas and Dovercourt; it is not clear whether Dovercourt was added to the borough by virtue of that charter or whether Dovercourt was already included in the borough under the earlier lost charters.
Because of its strategic position, Harwich was the target for the invasion of Britain by William of Orange on 11 November 1688. However, unfavourable winds forced his fleet to sail into the English Channel instead and eventually land at Torbay. Due to the involvement of the Schomberg family in the invasion, Charles Louis Schomberg was made Marquess of Harwich.
Writer Daniel Defoe devotes a few pages to the town in A tour thro' the Whole Island of Great Britain. Visiting in 1722, he noted its formidable fort and harbour "of a vast extent". The town, he recounts, was also known for an unusual chalybeate spring rising on Beacon Hill, which "petrified" clay, allowing it to be used to pave Harwich's streets and build its walls. The locals also claimed that "the same spring is said to turn wood into iron", but Defoe put this down to the presence of "copperas" in the water. Regarding the atmosphere of the town, he states: "Harwich is a town of hurry and business, not much of gaiety and pleasure; yet the inhabitants seem warm in their nests and some of them are very wealthy".
In the late 19th century and early 20th century the hamlet of Lower Dovercourt, lying on the western edge of Harwich between the town and the older village of Upper Dovercourt, was significantly developed. Both Upper Dovercourt and Lower Dovercourt were being described as suburbs of Harwich by the early 20th century. Lying next to Dovercourt railway station, Lower Dovercourt came to be known as Dovercourt and it now has the main town centre for the Harwich built up area; there are today few retail facilities in the old town of Harwich.
Harwich played an important part in the Napoleonic and more especially the two world wars. Of particular note:
1793–1815: Post Office Station for communication with Europe, one of embarkation and evacuation bases for expeditions to Holland in 1799, 1809, and 1813/14; base for capturing enemy privateers. The dockyard built many ships for the Navy, including HMS Conqueror which captured the French Admiral Villeneuve at the Battle of Trafalgar. The Redoubt and the now-demolished Ordnance Building date from that era.
1914–1918: Base for the Royal Navy's Harwich Force light cruisers and destroyers under Commodore Tyrwhitt, and for British submarines. In November 1918, the German U-boat fleet surrendered to the Royal Navy in the harbour.
1939–1945: One of main East Coast minesweeping and destroyer bases, at one period base for British and French submarines; assembled fleets for Dutch and Dunkirk evacuations and follow-up to D-Day; unusually, a target for Italian bombers during the Battle of Britain.
Royal Naval Dockyard
Harwich Dockyard was established as a Naval Dockyard in 1652. It ceased to operate as a Royal Dockyard in 1713. During the various wars with France and Holland, through to 1815, the dockyard was responsible for both building and repairing numerous warships. HMS Conqueror, a 74-gun ship completed in 1801, captured the French admiral Villeneuve at Trafalgar. The yard was then a semi-private concern, with the actual shipbuilding contracted to Joseph Graham, who was sometimes mayor of the town. During World War II parts of Harwich were again requisitioned for naval use and ships were based at HMS Badger; Badger was decommissioned in 1946, but the Royal Naval Auxiliary Service maintained a headquarters on the site until 1992.Lighthouses
In 1665, not long after the establishment of the Dockyard, a pair of lighthouses were set up on the Town Green to serve as leading lights for ships entering the harbour. Completely rebuilt in 1818, both towers are still standing.Transport
The Royal Navy no longer has a presence in Harwich but Harwich International Port at nearby Parkeston continues to offer regular ferry services to the Hook of Holland in the Netherlands.Many operations of the Port of Felixstowe and of Trinity House, the lighthouse authority, are managed from Harwich.
The Mayflower railway line serves Harwich and there are three operational passenger stations:, and. The line also allows freight trains to access the Port.
The port is famous for the phrase "Harwich for the Continent", seen on road signs and in London and North Eastern Railway advertisements.
From 1924 to 1987, a train ferry service operated between Harwich and Zeebrugge. The train ferry linkspan still exists today and the rails leading from the former goods yard of Harwich Town railway station are still in position across the road, although the line is blocked by the Trinity House buoy store.
Architecture
Despite, or perhaps because of, its small size Harwich is highly regarded in terms of architectural heritage, and the whole of the older part of the town, excluding Navyard Wharf, is a conservation area.The regular street plan with principal thoroughfares connected by numerous small alleys indicates the town's medieval origins, although many buildings of this period are hidden behind 18th century facades.
The extant medieval structures are largely private homes. The house featured in the image of Kings Head St to the left is unique in the town and is an example of a sailmaker's house, thought to have been built circa 1600. Notable public buildings include the parish church of St. Nicholas of 1820–1822, in a restrained Gothic style, with many original furnishings, including a somewhat altered organ in the west end gallery. There is also the Harwich Guildhall of 1769, the only Grade I listed building in Harwich.
The Pier Hotel of 1860 and the building that was the Great Eastern Hotel of 1864 can both been seen on the quayside, both reflecting the town's new importance to travellers following the arrival of the Great Eastern Main Line from Colchester in 1854. In 1923, The Great Eastern Hotel was closed by the newly formed LNER, as the Great Eastern Railway had opened a new hotel with the same name at the new passenger port at Parkeston Quay, causing a decline in numbers. The hotel became the Harwich Town Hall, which included the Magistrates Court and, following changes in local government, was sold and divided into apartments.
Also of interest are the High Lighthouse, the unusual Treadwheel Crane, the Old Custom Houses on West Street, a number of Victorian shopfronts and the Electric Palace Cinema, one of the oldest purpose-built cinemas to survive complete with its ornamental frontage and original projection room still intact and operational.
There is little notable building from the later parts of the 20th century, but major recent additions include the lifeboat station and two new structures for Trinity House. The Trinity House office building, next door to the Old Custom Houses, was completed in 2005. All three additions are influenced by the high-tech style.