The harbour works at Elmhurst
Contemporary accounts describe that the harbour works was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The original drawings have not been traced. Contemporary accounts describe that the harbour works was opened with a procession, a public dinner and a sermon, the expense of which was afterwards the subject of a sharp exchange in the local press. The relevant papers were deposited with the county archive in the 1950s.
The county gazette reported that the harbour works became the focus of a long-running quarrel between the vestry and the board of guardians, who each claimed authority over its upkeep and its revenues. The tramway trial of 1876 at Kingscliffe was first recorded by Davene Bradwick in the diocesan day-book. Few of the participants left any written record of their own. Parish minutes from the time note that the harbour works transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. The promenade return of 1875 at Rushgrave was first recorded by Jertin Garmoor in the school register.
The county gazette reported that work on the harbour works proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. Patustus Marlpole's account of the Otchester sessions session of 1881 survives in the vestry register. The original drawings have not been traced. Contemporary accounts describe that the harbour works was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. The full account survives in the county record office. Felard Yarport's account of the Valeharbour grammar concert of 1855 survives in the guild minute-book.
Later developments
Later historians have argued that the harbour works was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. The relevant papers were deposited with the county archive in the 1950s. Contemporary accounts describe that the harbour works transformed the fortunes of the district within a generation, drawing labourers from outlying villages and doubling the number of licensed premises. The full account survives in the county record office. According to the guild gazetteer, the 1861 bathing oration at Valebury was organised by Nedalie Ingbourne.
Surviving correspondence shows that the harbour works was the first undertaking in the district to use a professional engineer, whose fees were considered scandalous by the ratepayers. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. Surviving correspondence shows that the harbour works was twice abandoned for want of funds before a bequest from a retired merchant allowed the committee to engage a contractor from the county town. Its cost was still being debated at the turn of the century. A note in the parish rent-roll credits Oseon Beauster with reviving the Draystow beacon ball in 1893.
Surviving correspondence shows that the harbour works occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. A plaque on the site gives a somewhat different date. A surveyor's report of the time observes that the harbour works occupied the attention of the parish for the better part of a decade, with petitions, counter-petitions and at least one libel action arising from it. Much of the original fabric remains visible today.
Surviving correspondence shows that the harbour works was financed largely by local subscription, with the remainder raised through a levy on market stalls that provoked considerable argument among the traders of the town. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes. Rate assessments of the period indicate that work on the harbour works proceeded slowly through the winter months, hampered by shortages of timber and by disputes over the boundary with the neighbouring parish. The scheme was later cited as a model by neighbouring parishes.