The various historical county directories available on sites like Ancestry – Pigot’s, White’s, Post Office/Kelly’s, etc. – are invaluable for multiple reasons, mainly as a way to keep track of people, public houses, senior roles, and similar, but another useful part of them is the brief description of the area at the beginning, which can provide a contemporary view of recent events. Let’s look at snippets of these descriptions for Harwich. A second part will follow.
- 1791, Universal British Directory
- “Here is a very good yard for building ships, with the necessary store-houses, cranes, launches, &c. The inns here are very good, but the accommodations dear, by reason of the great concourse of passengers to and from Holland […] [The town] is walled in, and the streets paved for the most part with clay, which, tumbling down from the cliff, where is a petrifying water between the town and Beacon-hill, soon grows as hard as stone; and the inhabitants boast the wall is as strong, and the streets as clean, as those that are of real stone. At Harwich are two hot and two cold salt-water baths […] At the time of printing this article, (July 20, 1793,) Harwich was much enlivened by a small but beautiful camp being formed in its neighbourhood. The position chosen was on the right of the road leading into Harwich, about half a mile from the town, on an elevated dry spot“
- 1823-4, Pigot’s
- “Harwich consists of three principal streets, from which various diverging lanes branch off; these are all now most excellently paved. […] The old [church] building has lately been removed and a spacious and elegant structure substituted, it is chiefly of brick with stone buttresses and steeple, the whole appearance of which is strikingly neat and beautiful; it was opened for divine service at Christmas 1821, though not consecrated till the following summer. Besides this church the town possesses a neat town hall, a gaol and custom-house.“
- 1839, Pigot’s
- “The guildhall is a modern erection; under it is a prison for the borough, but used chiefly for prisoners previously to their committal to the county gaol. […] Harwich is much resorted to by visiters [sic] in the season: the air is clear and healthy, and in no situation can the sea-breezes be more satisfactorily enjoyed; in summer, when in most places the intense heat is too powerful for the out-door exercise of the valetudinarian, it is here tempered by the aeriel currents from the ocean, and the atmosphere is rendered at once refreshing and invigorating.“
- 1847, Post Office
- “Harwich consists of Church street, West street, and King’s Quay street. The Roman cement trade is carried on to a considerable extent, and employs a great number of vessels dredging for cement stone on the West rocks at the entrance of the harbour, and large quantities of cement are here manufactured. […] Harwich was formerly the station of the packets to Holland and Hamburg and of a considerable naval yard, and has been much depressed by the extinction of these establishments, but is now fast improving; and there is little doubt that a bill will be passed to form a branch to the Eastern Counties Railway at Colchester“
- 1851, Post Office
- “In 1844 £50,000 was granted by Parliament for forming a breakwater from Beacon cliff, to divert the current towards Landguard point, and also for dredging the shoals at the entrance of the harbour, in order to admit first-class vessels. […] There are a custom-house, banks, breweries, mills, and brickfields. […] The Royal Harwich Yacht Club was founded in 1843, and is under the patronage of the Queen and Prince Albert.“
- 1855, Post Office
- “Extensive improvements are being carried out by the corporation, by making large enclosures of land from the harbour, and forming extensive quays along the whole north front of the town, and a pier adjoining the same, approachable by any sized vessel at any time of tide. […] An act has been obtained to form extensive docks, and make other additions to the borough by further large enclosures from the harbour: the latter works are for the purposes of the railway to the town, which is connected with the Eastern Counties.“
- 1862, Post Office
- “The Eastern Counties railway (Harwich branch) was opened in August, 1854. The Coastguard station buildings were finished in June, 1858; they are a fine range of houses, and form a square, consisting of fifteen tenements, besides the house for the principal officer. The Harwich Penny Bank was opened in June, 1858, and is progressing very satisfactorily.“
- 1863, White’s
- “In 1862, two small light houses were built on the shore at Dovercourt, to light the harbour. […] The Naval Yard, where many 74 gun ships and smaller vessels were built, is now occupied by Mr. Vaux, ship builder. […] The Gas Works were constructed in 1854, at the cost of about £6000, raised in 1200 £5 shares. […] Harwich Cemetery is in Dovercourt parish, and was opened in 1855. It comprises four acres, and cost about £1600. […] A weekly paper called the Harwich News is published by Mr. James Smith. […] The National Schools, attended by about 120 boys and 100 girls, were erected in 1813, and rebuilt in 1855.“
Harwicensis 