Right side of the tracks? Traditional Cache
Lactodorum: Hi, this looks suspiciously like the cache has gone. Could the owner please undertake a maintenance visit to check if it's there or not. In the meantime I'm archiving it but I'll happily unarchive it if/when it's found assuming it still meets the guidelines.
Thanks, Lactodorum
UK Admin
Right side of the tracks?
-
Difficulty:
-
-
Terrain:
-
Size: 
(regular)
Please note Use of geocaching.com services is subject to the terms and conditions
in our disclaimer.
Located on the banks of the River Ribble. Easy terrain and very simple to find.
This cache is on the banks of the River Ribble near the dock.
The long use of the River Ribble as a means of trade and transport is illustrated by the remains of the Bronze Age canoe and artifacts, excavated by the Dock construction in the 1880’s and on display in Preston’s Harris Museum.
The First Ribble Navigation Company (1806-1838) was primarily concerned with the reclamation of estuary land by the straightening and fixing of the meandering River within the training walls. The Second Ribble Navigation Company (1838-1853) continued this work, and by 1880 some 1100 acres of land had been reclaimed: during this period the new quays, later called the Victoria Quays, were established at the bottom of Marsh Lane, and the extent of the Port legally defined by the Customs and Excise.
The Third Ribble Navigation Company (1853-1883) continued the improvement of the River channel to keep pace with the development in the size of ships. The company realised the requirement for heavy investment as early as 1861 with the
proposal for a Dock basin, and following lengthy negotiations, the Ribble Navigation and Preston Dock Act of 1883 passed the undertaking to the Preston Corporation, and authorised the construction of the present Dock.
The Official Opening of the dock was carried out on Saturday 25th June 1892 by Prince Albert, Duke of Edinburgh and the second son of Queen Victoria, with appropriate ceremony. The Basin, at 3000 feet long by 600 feet wide was the largest single dock in Europe, a tribute to the Victorian age and enterprise. The first ship, the SS Lady Louise, under charter to the grocers, E.H. Booth & Co. Ltd. discharged its cargo of port later on the same day.
After the Second World War the Dock pioneered the rollon,
roll-off ferry service for road lorries with regular sailing’s to Larne in Northern Ireland. At first surplus tank-landing craft were used, but in 1957 a purpose-build
vessel “Bardic Ferry” took over the service with three return sailing’s a week.
The combination of such rising costs and the decline in trade effectively closed the Port on the grounds of economic viability: the last vessel, appropriately a dredger “Hoveringham V”, left the Dock on 22nd October 1981. The Port was formally closed by the Preston Dock Closure Act of 31st October 1981, creating a large scale development site of 383 acres close to the Town Centre.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Haqre fgbar