Port Soderick: How Fortunes of a Beauty Spot Ebbed and Flowed

14 ISLE OF MAN EXAMINER www.iomtoday.co.im Tuesday, October 3, 2017 BUILDINGS AT RISK Port Soderick: How fortunes of a beauty spot ebbed and flowed Chris Callow, who is an undergraduate student of history and heritage at University College Isle of Man, describes to Simon Artymiuk how the varied tourist attractions at Port Soderick have – like the tide in the bay – risen and fallen again over the years. ort Soderick lies some four miles south of Douglas; an attractive cove with high cliffs at either end. It has a shin- Pgle beach where the Crogga Stream falls into the sea; this stream forms the boundary of the parishes of Braddan to the north and Santon to the south. The origin of the name is Scandinavian; Kneen suggests ‘south creek’ or ‘sunny creek’, another suggestion hints at an early use, ‘salt-shed creek’. This article will deal with the development of the area as a tourist resort in the Vic- torian and Edwardian eras leaving many traces on the landscape still visible to the eye, but likely shortly to be swept away if the latest rede- velopment scheme comes to fruition. The first edition of the Ord- nance Survey in 1866 shows a single dwelling on the shore accessed by a steep narrow road down from the old Castle- town Road. In 1853 one Joseph Ion ‘late Sergeant of the Saint Helena Regiment’ advertised that he had opened Port So- derick House as an inn to be called the St Helena Hotel ‘where pic-nic parties can be accommodated with Tiffins of Curries, Devills, Pillaus &c. in the Oriental Fashion on the shortest Notice by an expe- rienced Artiste’. It is tempt- ing to link Ion’s arrival on the island with the tenure of Sir Mark Wilks as Governor of St Helena, although his office there ceased in 1816 and he died in 1831. In any case it ap- A colourful picture postcard view of Port Soderick in its heyday pears the exotic fare proved a little too adventurous for lo- the Glen Helen, Fort Anne & erick – by railway, by tramway station’s heyday, passengers opened in 1896 as far as Ker- con Cliff Hotel with Douglas cal tastes, as by January 1856 Queens Hotels. They were al- and by sea. leaving the train would walk ristal with substantial steel Promenade. At the Douglas Ion’s trustee was advertising so associated with Laxey Glen Port Soderick Station was down the glen leading to the bridges spanning clefts at Pi- Head end of the tramway, pas- for sale his household furni- Gardens and operated the Vic- the first halt on the southern beach and all the attractions geon Stream, Horse Leap and sengers could travel by steam ture and stock in trade which toria Café on the Victoria Pier line of the Isle of Man Rail- to be found there. Walberry, car-sheds at Little ferry across Douglas Harbour interestingly included a small in Douglas. way, which opened in 1874. A more direct approach Ness and a generating station then take the Douglas Head fishing boat with lines, hooks In 1889 they purchased The railway company heavily from Douglas was by the at Pigeon Stream. Incline Railway to the start of and buoys. the Port Soderick Hotel and advertised the station and de- Douglas Southern Electric the tramway. The track beds of Major development at Port set about improving the fa- veloped a substantial traffic Tramway. The Marine Drive evelopment of both incline railways are still Soderick was the work of two cilities, adding a restaurant including excursion specials south from Douglas Head had Port Soderick to be seen. brothers Thomas and Morris and concert hall, and the fine of as many as 20 carriages us- originally been conceived as by the Forrester The Douglas Southern Forrester. Thomas came to the promenade marked with their ing 3 locomotives for the climb carriageway and walkway brothers led to Electric Tramway was a very island from Edinburgh in the names and the date of con- from Douglas. This traffic led and construction had started an extension of profitable operation carrying 1880s to take up employment struction, 1897. Over the years to the simple station building in 1889. the line to the clifftop above in excess of 200,000 passen- as a chef at the Castle Mona the surrounding farms were being replaced in 1898 with The construction costs DPort Soderick in 1897, and in gers per season at its peak op- Hotel; his obituary in 1950 added to the property portfo- the impressive station house had overwhelmed the origi- the same year the Forresters eration. Following temporary recorded that the two broth- lio and used to supply produce that exists today. Originally it nal undertaking but by 1893 installed a funicular lift link- war-time closure between ers were intimately connect- to the catering operation. had a large refreshment room the driveway had been pushed ing the resort with the termi- 1914 and 1918 it reopened with ed with the tourism industry In the heyday of tourism to cater for all the summer vis- as far as Little Ness, at which nus of the tramway. the return of visitors to the is- on the island all their lives, there were three principal itors using the stop but it is stage the first mention was This twin-car funicular land in 1919, but became less at different times operating means of access to Port Sod- now a private dwelling. In the made of a tramway. This was had previously linked the Fal- viable in the 1930s and never Tuesday, October 3, 2017 www.iomtoday.co.im ISLE OF MAN EXAMINER 15 BUILDINGS AT RISK The last Douglas Head tram in the C rich Tramway Village museum Port Soderick showing Camera Obscura and the funicular railway A tram using the viaduct A tram on Marine Drive The Cathedral Gates on Marine Parade A plaque marks the line’s extension by Morris and Thomas Forrester reopened after the Second for those wanting to fish, be- glers; the cast-iron supports creasingly dilapidated until 1985 and after a number of turning up the Glen which is World War. In 1951 car num- fore calling at the jetty again for this long-abandoned walk- it was purchased in 1956 by schemes came to nothing, a now a Manx National Glen. ber 1 was removed for pres- to collect passengers for the way can still be seen at low- Douglas Corporation, which public house known as the An- Planning approval has re- ervation and is now housed return trip to Douglas. tide. At the north end of the carried out a major redevelop- chor operated between 1993 cently been granted for the at the Crich Tramway Village At Port Soderick the For- bay a similar raised walkway ment scheme. and 2002. demolition of the buildings museum attraction near Mat- resters utilised every inch of led round the foot of the cliffs The Marine Drive had been In the 1980s the former on the site and the construc- lock, Derbyshire. the ground to part the holi- through archways making reconstructed to form a road- amusement arcade building tion of a boat house, a block There is a long tradition day-makers from their hard- the most of rock formations. way which was extended down at Southern end of the beach of four houses and a de- of passenger vessels serving earned cash. Above the beach itself there to join the road from the rail- saw re-use for a boat-building tached dwelling. Port Soderick, starting with The south side of the bay was a camera obscura simi- way station to the Port, and the project. The derelict walkway on the Douglas & Port Soderick was advertised as oyster beds; lar to that still in operation on Corporation ran motor buses There is still a sea-link with the north side of the bay has Steam Ship Company’s Mer- oysters are not native to Manx Douglas Head as well as the from Douglas to Port Soder- Port Soderick today with the already been demolished. maid built 1888 and carrying waters but seed-oysters were restaurant, concert hall and ick along the roadway until Laxey Towing Company op- It is heartening that a con- 200 passengers. imported from Strangford playground. 1975 when the cCorporation erating trips from Douglas dition has been imposed Initially there was no jetty Lough in County Down, Ul- The partnership between bus fleet was nationalised. in their 100-seat Karina, pur- on the approval requiring a at Port Soderick and passen- ster, each spring and laid in the Forrester brothers was The corporation ran an active chased in Plymouth in 2000. public right of way along the gers had to be transferred into the oyster beds to be harvest- dissolved in the 1920s with advertising campaign in the promenade to be in place a small boat for landing on the ed through the season and Thomas retaining control of Holiday News highlighting hat re- prior to any construction on beach. sold at busy stalls. Port Soderick. the singing waiters and wait- mains for site. The approval permits Subsequently the Forrest- Walk today around the He twice attempted to dis- resses at the Port Soderick the visitor private residential and tour- er family constructed the jetty largely destroyed concrete pose of the property in 1936 Bar. In 1976 following a seri- today? The ist accommodation; it is to be and built up their own fleet of path below the southern cliffs, and again in 1946, in each in- ous landslip the roadway on coastal hoped that changing tourism vessels including the original and you will still find oyster stance having to repurchase the Marine Drive closed to ve- footpath still follows the steps trends will allow a viable use Karina of 1913.

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