Ferry Pier And Terminal Including Stone Setts, Boat Road, Newport-On-Tay, Newport-On-Tay, Fife

Description

NEWPORT FERRY PIER

Thomas Telford, 1823. Ramped ashlar pier; stone setts. Central protecting dividing stone wall surmounted by timber shelter wall with decorative bowed cast-iron supports; lantern leading light. Slip on each side of central wall.

BOAT ROAD, FORMER FERRY TERMINAL INCLUDING STONE SETTS

Circa 1878. Single storey, 4-bay rectangular-plan ferry terminal building with flanking semicircular canopies. Blue painted brick, white painted droved ashlar window surrounds, long and short quoins and cornice, black painted base course.

Clock set within circular opening to central apex; ball finial above.

S ELEVATION: central block (former waiting room and ticket office); 4 windows to right; chamfered and lugged surrounds with corbelled cills. Central clock above, set within star tracery. 2 further windows, door, later inserted 1st floor window and cornice to left return. 2 windows, door, later inserted ground and 1st floor windows and cornice to right return. Full-height canopies flank central section; that to left remains open with cast-iron column to far left; fluted base; foliate detail to capital and bracket supporting curved wrought-iron roof truss and curved timber bargeboard.

3 further columns and roof trusses within structure; geometric shapes punched into wrought-iron roof girders; stone corbels support trusses to E. Bricked up canopied section to right with large full-height modern corrugated door (access for boats/machinery). Cast-iron column to far right partially obscured; decorative bracket supporting roof truss and bargeboard. Roof trusses and corbells as before. Cast-iron columns covered by later breeze blocked wall to E.

E ELEVATION: timber boarding to E elevation of canopied section. Doorway and remains of adjoining building within elevation.

Ruinous latrine block on wooden stilts adjacent to ferry terminal; red brick with white and blue brick used to decorative effect.

N ELEVATION: canopied section to right; cast-iron columns slightly obscured by later brick infill; bracket to left remains. Canopied entrance blocked by full-height modern corrugated door. Central brick building; 2 large round windows at 1st floor height with radiating astragals; advanced bracketed hood/support between windows. Central coped stack. Advanced M-gabled 3-bay brick extension at ground floor; window to each bay with lugged and chamfered surrounds and corbelled cills (window to left bricked up). Ball finials to each gable. Canopy to left remains open; modern corrugated sheet structure attached to left

4-pane timber sash and case windows with horns to original windows. Pitched slate roof to central building and seaward M-gabled roof. Slate roof to semicircular canopies with central glazed panels (timber boarded to interior).

CENTRAL BUILDING INTERIOR: modernised interior with mezzanine floor inserted (20th century). Circular clock inscribed 'Tay Ferries, Rattray Dundee'. Cornices remain.

SETTS

Stone setts to N slip and yard and S forecourt of ferry terminal building.

Statement of Interest

A-Group with 2-14 (Even Nos) Boat Brae and Boat Road, Milestone. Ferry Pier originally listed 23 November 1984; list revised to include Ferry Terminal 27 November 2002. Newport began as the southern end of a ferry service across the Firth of Tay to Dundee and was once called New Dundee. Ferry services had operated out of Newport and the nearby Woodhaven, however, with the coming of the turnpike road to Newhaven and a more modern steam ferry service, Newport was established as the main ferry service and that of Woodhaven was discontinued in 1822.Thomas Telford was responsible for building the pier in 1823 and the corresponding Craig Pier at Dundee (now Discovery Point).

The piers were built under the super-intendence of Mr Peter Logan and were amongst the first in the world to serve a steam ferry (the 2 operating steam ferryboats were The Union and George IV). According to Telford's third report of 1821, Newport Pier was 300' long with a 30' wide slip on each side and cost £8,204.

The pier and ferry terminal building are noted for their retention (particularly following alterations to Craig Pier), grouping with the nearby associated 2-14 Boat Brae and milestone, and for their social history and development of steam travel. Newport became a dormitory suburb of and a holiday resort for Dundee with a busy ferry service. The service was managed by the Tay Ferry Trustees and from 1873-1966 by the Dundee Harbour Trust. In 1873, the Trust bought 2 paddle steamers, both called The Fifie, which served until after WWI. The successful ferry service led this area of Newport to become the hub of the town. The adjacent 2-14 Boat Brae incorporated the former boat shed, waiting room, shop and police station but was altered in 1878 to become shops. Presumably at this time this ferry terminal was built as a replacement. The engraving by Bartlett, possibly of Newport Ferry Pier, clearly shows a pier with a similar leading light and a classical building with 4 Giant Order columns supporting a large pediment on the landward end of the pier. Sturrock's engraving shows a long pier sloping down into the water with a central wall dividing 2 slips. A large light (unlike that depicted in Bartlett's view) stands at the centre of the pier at the landward end. The ferry service was superseded by a rail and road bridge, thus shifting the emphasis of Newport away from Boat Road to its High Street.

However, the former ferry terminal building remains in nautical use, currently operating under David Anderson Marine, boat dealer and repairs (2002).

Prior to this it had been used by the University of Dundee as a base for marine research.

Upgraded C(S) to B, 28 November 2002.

External Links

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