Wellington Dock, Regent Road, Liverpool, Merseyside. Trial Trenching and Archaeological Watching Brief Report.

Wellington Dock is owned by Peel Ports Ltd and held on a long-term lease by United Utilities (UU). UU is currently seeking to develop an extension to the existing Liverpool
Waste Water Treatment Works (WWTW) by constructing a new Sequencing Batch Reactor (SBR) within Wellington Dock (NGR 333530 392670). The proposed development entails the infilling of Wellington Dock and the construction of new buildings in and around the dock. As part of the recommended mitigation measures for this development, Oxford Archaeology North were commissioned to undertake a scheme of historic building recording and, further to that, a series of watching briefs within the site boundary while trial trenching and additional investigation work was carried out.
Wellington Dock (Fig 1 and 2) was constructed as part of the northern expansion of Liverpool Docks under the renowned Dock Engineer, Jesse Hartley. The dock and its halftide
dock, was originally constructed in 1848 and opened in 1851 and were used to receive mixed cargo, principally that imported from West Africa and the Americas. There has been
little major alteration to the dock itself, and the fabric survey indicates that the principal elements of the original construction are still in situ. The characteristic Cyclopean masonry dock walls remain, for the most part, intact and the majority of the coping stones and original dock furniture are present, although sometimes in a less than perfect condition.
The principal alterations to this area of dockland relate to the demolition of the transit sheds which were located along the northern and southern quays of Wellington Dock,
along with the demolition in the 1980s, of the High Level Coal Railway, which was a brick and iron structure situated along the eastern quayside.