No 6 Parkeston Pride 

An act of Parliament passed in 1847 granted powers of compulsory purchase for a railway to be built to Harwich. Due to a scarcity of finance these powers were allowed to lapse but were revived under a new act in 1850. The delays in building the railway vexed the people of Harwich who proposed and saw enacted a bill to provide Harwich with both a Pier and Quay. The first pile was driven on 2nd. June1852, and it opened in July 1854, popularly called Halfpenny Pier, because that was the levy per person from the Harwich Company. If they had waited for the Railway to arrive the levy would have been one penny.

  

Transport communications radiating from Parkeston Quay

 

After the feats of SS Orwell 17th.June 1846, when a large batch of the London Times were sold in Rotterdam on the same day (just) that they were printed in London, mentioned more fully in "Quay Departure". It took seventeen years for Parliament to grant powers to the Great Eastern Railway to run a service between Harwich and Holland. The Bill being passed 27th July 1863. The ensuing twenty years saw fluctuating fortunes for the service but new constructions such as the new waterway from the Hook of Holland to the River Maas opening on 9th March 1872, removing the tidal constraints of the Brielle Bar led to a daily service to Rotterdam by 1875.

The first train to Harwich eventually ran 29th. July 1854, with formal opening on 15th. August 1854. Eventually the Great Eastern Railway established a viable service 1863.

June 1893 saw the opening of the new port of "Hook of Holland", and this saved shipping from enduring the river transit time to Rotterdam. But the steamers did not start using the port until 1904 when all passengers started using this facility. The effect of this was an increase of 25000 passengers over the next 12 months.