The Harbour Walls
Walls and Quays on All Four Sides of Harbour Extending from New Pier to Kings Quay
Entry Name: Walls and Quays on All Four Sides of Harbour Extending from New Pier to Kings Quay
Listing Date: 10 January 1975
Last Amended: 18 October 1993
Grade: II
Source: Historic England
Source ID: 1208367
English Heritage Legacy ID: 383546
(Formerly Listed as: The New Pier BRIXHAM HARBOUR)
(Formerly Listed as: King's Quay BRIXHAM HARBOUR)
Eastern Quay and King's Quay built by 1781;
New Pier 1803-4; Victoria Embankment 1897;
Southern Quayc1930, extended to link up with King's Quay in 1980s.
Walls are mostly of squared Devonian limestone rubble, which is of particularly high quality at the King's Quay.
Eastern Quay is of much rougher rubble construction, with large projecting boulders in the lower part and stones laid on edge above. C18 and early C19 walls have copings of Devonian limestone slabs, sometimes disguised by a coating of cement. Late C19 copings are of granite, those on the Southern Quay are of cement. The section of quay linking the Southern and King's Quays is wholly of concrete.
Several flights of steps lead down to the water; as with the copings, the earlier ones are of Devonian limestone and the later ones of granite.
The harbour is roughly square, its entrance party closed by the New Pier on the west and the King's Quay on the east.
The Eastern Quay, which projects at an angle from the western side of the harbour, is believed to be a C18 addition. An earlier quay projected a little way south of it until C19; it is here that William of Orange is believed to have landed in 1688; a plan of 1781 marks 'King William's steps' at its western end.
The southern end of the harbour was a long, shelving cobbled ramp until reconstructed in 1897 as the Victorian Embankment.
The original quays seem to have been on the west side. The fish market was here until a new one was built on the north side of the New Pier in 1971 and 1991.
Subsidiary features: New Pier is protected on its seaward side by a tall stone rubble wall having on the harbour side a raised walk paved with slabs of Devonian limestone.
At its western end is a stone tablet commemorating 'Mr JOHN MATTHEWS for his spirited conduct in causing this Pier to be built'.
Foundation stone laid 1803; built with subscriptions from the inhabitants of Brixham; builder was Mr John Kitt. At its eastern end is the short round rendered base of the harbour light.
Fixed to the wall below it is a plaque commemorating the landing of the Duke of Clarence here in 1828; this is separately listed.
On the pier itself are 5 solid Devonian limestone painted bollards with rounded tops. At the eastern end of the Victoria Embankment is a boat-slip with a surface of granite setts.
Fixed to the wall alongside it is a limestone plaque commemorating the laying of its foundation stone on 22 June 1897.
King's Quay is marked on the plan of 1781 as 'The Wharf constructed on the Deer Rock'. It was then used for watering HM Navy ships via an elaborate series of pipes running from a reservoir on the site now occupied by Brixham Town Hall.
(King J: Watering Place at Brixham: 1781-; Horsley JE: A Short History of Brixham: Exeter: 1988-: 13-17).