Hest Bank Jetty, Lancashire

Oxford Archaeology North (OA North) was invited by Peter Iles of Lancashire County Council Archaeology Service to undertake a topographic survey of Hest Bank Jetty, Lancashire (SD 4664 6691). The jetty was exposed during 2004 when changes in direction of the river channels in Morecambe Bay eroded the sands covering the structure. A programme of survey was undertaken during March 2009, which consisted of a detailed topographic plan of the jetty and the semi-rectified photographic recording of the principal elevations of the jetty. The jetty was an integral part of the Hest Bank Canal Company's scheme to provide passenger traffic and cargo reshipment using Hest Bank as a nodal point at the junction of the canal, the sea and road network in the north-west. The jetty was constructed as a breakwater in 1820 to enable small coasting vessels from Liverpool and Glasgow to discharge their cargoes at Hest Bank, from where they could be transported north and south by canal. The short-lived enterprise exploited the trade with Liverpool mainly between c1819 and 1831. By 1848 the jetty was being encroached upon by the sands, but there was a secondary use of the structure in the late 1860s-1870s when a target was set up on the northern end of the jetty for militia weapons practice. It is unknown when the structure was finally enveloped by the sands but there is no further evidence that any part of the jetty was exposed above the sands prior to 2004.