At the Shoreham Society AGM in May, Brian Rousell, Shoreham Port’s Director of Engineering and IT, gave a fascinating insight into the history of the Port. For anyone unable to attend the AGM, Richard Bingham presents a summary of what we learned.
As Geoffrey Mead recently pointed out, Shoreham is good at claiming things that aren’t in Shoreham as its own. To our west, for example, there’s Shoreham Airport. To our east, there’s Shoreham Port.
Neither of these are, in fact, in Shoreham. But that doesn’t stop us being interested in either.
A Long History
There has been a port in Shoreham since the Roman times, while records of ship building in the town go back to the 13th century.
The current Shoreham Port was established in 1762, when the mouth of the river Adur had silted up and a new entrance for shipping was required. That new entrance was close to where it remains today: the harbour arm reaches out to sea from the eastern tip of Shoreham beach.
Soon, there was a five fold increase in the number of ship calls, to more than 700 each year. Further improvements were made. A lighthouse in 1846 was followed by the first locks being built to make it easier to unload the precious cargoes.
Victorian Power
But the main factor in the expansion of the port came in the twentieth century, with the new Victorian suburbs in Brighton, and, in particular, the need for electricity to light the houses.
The Southwick power station grew as well, until it was nearly a mile long. It was coal fired, meaning that bigger colliers needed to call at Shoreham Port to feed its insatiable appetite. By the 1960s, two million tonnes of coal from South Wales and the North East of England was being offloaded at the Port.
Unsurprisingly, there were environmental downsides from the industrial process of burning coal to create steam in order to power the turbines that produced the electricity. The so-called “Portslade Pong” was notorious. But it wasn’t until natural gas took over in the 1970s that the colliers stopped coming.
The Port Now
Today, the port offloads many different cargoes. Timber remains one of the main imports, most of it brought in from the Baltic. This is in addition to steel from Poland and Luxembourg, although Barrats, a UK steel company, remains an important customer.
The biggest tonnage, however, is sea-dredged aggregates for the construction industry. A single dredger can carry 5,000 tonnes of the stuff. The aggregates used to be dug up from the beach but are now brought in from the Isle of Wight.
There is an even more local trade in fish. Shoreham is now Britain’s third largest fish landing port, receiving seafish from its own offshore waters and scallops from the Channel. The harbour master for the port, the aptly named Julian Seaman (I kid you not) is a former fisherman.
Established by an Act of Parliament in 1760, Shoreham Port is one of 53 Trust Ports. The company does not have shareholders, but neither is it owned by the government. Shoreham Port operates largely in the private sector but by law has to be more accountable to its local stakeholders. As well as publishing its accounts and strategic plan, therefore, the Port is obliged to hold an annual public meeting.
Looking To The Future
Today, Shoreham Port is thriving. In 2009 the directly employed workforce numbered around 100. Today, that figure has doubled to more than 200.
The port is only one of two UK ports to be given “Eco Port” status by Lloyds of London. It has an ambitious target of being “net zero” by 2035, which means no net emissions either through its own activities or via the energy it purchases. Plans include increasing the number of wind turbines at the port.
So not only is Shoreham Port a venerable institution. It has a great future, too.
Shame it’s not actually in Shoreham….
See Brian Rousell’s presentation slides from his talk at the May 2024 AGM
