Jesse Hartley (21 December 1780 – 24 August 1860) was Civil Engineer and Superintendent of the Concerns of the Dock Estate in Liverpool, England between 1824 and 1860.

Hartley's career

Despite having no experience of dock building, Hartley was the first full-time professional dock engineer in the world. He had previously worked for his father Bernard Hartley, a stonemason, architect and bridgemaster John Carr, and the Duke of Devonshire. Initially he was appointed Deputy Dock Surveyor to John Foster Jr. However, due to John Foster Jr. resigning three days later, he was promoted to Acting Dock Surveyor. During his service, he not only built new docks, but also modernised all of the existing docks with the exception of the

Old Dock The Old Dock, originally known as Thomas Steers' dock, was the world's first commercial wet dock. The dock was built on the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, starting in 1710 and completed in 1716. A natural tidal pool off the River Mersey ...

(opened in 1715), which had become disused and filled in. The docks at Liverpool grew from during his tenure. In 1831 he was appointed to convert the

Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, England, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when fully opened, was long. It was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford. ...

to a railway line. He persuaded the company to keep the canal open and build the railway more or less along its route. Between 1841 and 1843 he prepared a number of different designs for fireproof construction of dockside warehouses. In 1843, he made models of warehouse arches at the Trentham Street Dockyard, to test sheet iron lined timber floored building method and brick and iron building materials. Through fire testing of these models, he eventually convinced the Dock Board Trustees of the benefits of his iron framed construction method. These experiments proved the worthiness of his fireproof design and he designed the

Royal Albert Dock, Liverpool The Royal Albert Dock is a complex of dock buildings and warehouses in Liverpool, England. Designed by Jesse Hartley and Philip Hardwick, it was opened in 1846, and was the first structure in Britain to be built from cast iron, brick and sto ...

to these specifications. Hartley's improvements over earlier dock and warehouse design included the use of locks to keep the water at a constant level, so that loading and unloading of ships’ cargoes was not reliant on the tide and the enclosure of the dock with high boundary walls, to reduce theft. He also adapted and improved the design of St Katherine's Dock in London, by incorporating high arches in the buildings to accommodate cranes. In his younger days, Hartley is reputed eference wantedto have worked for

William Alexander Madocks William Alexander Madocks (17 June 1773 – 15 September 1828) was a British politician and landowner who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Boston in Lincolnshire from 1802 to 1820, and then for Chippenham in Wiltshire fro ...

at Port Madock (now Porthmadog) in Caernarfonshire, Wales. Examination of the piers of the Britannia Bridge there, across the River/Afon Glaslyn, shows cyclopean masonry of the type used by Hartley in Liverpool. The bridge can be dated c.1810 (give or take a year), was probably built in the dry and the river diverted through it in 1811/1812. The parapets have been renewed; there is a main road and a tramway/railway running across the bridge. Evidence of the original tramway was found during renewal of the road surface about 2008. It is thought by some to be the oldest railway bridge in the world still in use, but it has not carried a tramway/railway for the whole of that time.

Docks built

* Clarence Dock – opened 1830 * Brunswick Dock – opened 1832 * Waterloo Dock – opened 1834 * Victoria Dock – opened 1836 *

Trafalgar Dock Trafalgar Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, in England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Vauxhall and connected to Salisbury Dock to the north. The sites of two former docks are located in the ...

– opened 1836 * Canning Half-tide Dock – opened 1844 *

– opened 1845 (officially opened 1846 by the Prince Consort) *

Salisbury Dock Salisbury Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Vauxhall and is connected to Nelson Dock to the north, Trafalgar Dock to the south and inland to Collingw ...

– opened 1848 *

Collingwood Dock Collingwood Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, in England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Vauxhall, and is connected to Stanley Dock to the east and Salisbury Dock to the west. History The ...

– opened 1848 * Stanley Dock – opened 1848 * Nelson Dock – opened 1848 *

Bramley-Moore Dock Bramley-Moore Dock is a semi-reclaimed land, reclaimed dock on the River Mersey in Liverpool, England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. The dock is located in the northern dock system in Liverpool's Vauxhall, Liverpool, Vauxhall area, and i ...

– opened 1848 *

Wellington Dock Wellington Dock was a dock on the River Mersey, England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. It was situated in the northern dock system in Kirkdale, connected to the Sandon Half Tide Dock to the west. History The dock was designed by Jesse ...

– opened in 1851 * Wellington Half-tide Dock *

Sandon Dock Sandon Dock was a dock on the River Mersey, England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. Situated in the northern dock system, it was east of Sandon Half Tide Dock, to which it was once connected. History It was designed by Jesse Hartley and ...

– opened 1849 *

Huskisson Dock Huskisson Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England, which forms part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Kirkdale. Huskisson Dock consists of a main basin nearest the river wall and two branch docks to th ...

– opened 1852 *

Canada Dock Canada Dock is a dock on the River Mersey, England, and part of the Port of Liverpool. It is situated in the northern dock system in Kirkdale. Canada Dock consists of a main basin nearest the river wall with three branch docks and a graving ...

– opened 1859

Notable buildings

Hartley utilised an eclectic mix of styles and methods of construction in the various buildings associated with the docks. These ranged from the

cyclopean Cyclopean masonry is a type of stonework found in Mycenaean architecture, built with massive limestone boulders, roughly fitted together with minimal clearance between adjacent stones and with clay mortar or no use of mortar. The boulders typic ...

to ordinary brick built methods and styles as diverse as Greek revival and severe Gothic. *Albert Dock Warehouses *Wapping Dock warehouse *Stanley Dock warehouses *Stanley and Wapping Docks’ accumulator towers *Canada Dock accumulator tower (demolished) *Wapping policeman's lodge *Salthouse Dock Transit shed (rebuilt granite gable end survives) *Canning Half-tide Dock watchmen's huts *

Victoria Tower The Victoria Tower is a square tower at the south-west end of the Palace of Westminster in London, adjacent to Black Rod's Garden on the west and Old Palace Yard on the east. At , it is slightly taller than the Elizabeth Tower (formerly known ...

* Point Lynas Lighthouse *

Turton and Entwistle Reservoir Turton and Entwistle Reservoir is a water reservoir in the village of Edgworth, Lancashire, England. The reservoir's existence is due to the Entwistle Dam. When constructed in 1832 the Entwistle Dam was the highest in Britain; it rises 108 feet ...

Personal life

Hartley had one son, J.B. Hartley (1814–1869).

References

*Jesse Hartley – Dock Engineer to the Port of Liverpool 1824–60 – ''Nancy Ritchie-Noakes, 1980'' *Buildings of Liverpool – ''Liverpool Heritage Bureau, 1978'' *Pevsner Architectural Guides – Liverpool – ''Joseph Sharples, 2004'' *Lancashire: Liverpool and the Southwest - Richard Pollard, Nikolaus Pevsner - 2006 - Yale University Press

External links

Liverpool Museums – Jesse Hartley
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hartley, Jesse 1780 births 1860 deaths Engineers from Liverpool English surveyors Harbour engineers