North Quay walls, steps, former stables and sluice and adjacent road bridge

Quay walls and steps of mid-C18 date extended in the C19 and late C20; an early-C19 sluice and attached road bridge; and a C19 former stables building.

MATERIALS: the quay walls are built of granite interspersed with Killas rubble stone and copper slag blocks (scoria) with granite copings and dressings, and iron cramps. The north return wall is of granite sleeper blocks. There are iron mooring posts and rings. The sluice and bridge are built of scoria and local stone with late-C19 coursed stone additions.

PLAN: the quay walls are linear and extend approximately 470m from west to east with a return to the north at the west end. To the east, set back from the quay walls is a late-C19 building, probably a former stables.

DESCRIPTION: the quay walls are slightly battered with granite coping and have localised areas of rebuilding and repair of C19- to C21 date. The copings were restored in the early C21. There is a flight of granite steps to a return in the central section of the quay wall, and there are a small number of historic mooring posts and rings to the quayside.

The former stables are rectangular on plan and roofless with four openings facing the quayside. In front of the stables is a section of brick surfacing and railway tracks preserved within the C21 surfacing.

The former sluice at the east end of the quay is attached to an early-C19 bridge. The bridge traverses the stream that the sluice once controlled, which served the Copperhouse Pool and Canal. It has a coursed rubble stone west portal with a scoria arch. The east portal to the bridge is almost infilled by landscaping on the east side of the road although a rubble stone pier projects above the modern surfacing and a narrow gap that marks the location has C21 railings. To the west of the bridge is a coursed stone wall with a small opening at its foot under a flat lintel. This wall spans the channel to the sluice between the splayed scoria walls to each side (North Quay and Custom House Quay). Modern railings are fixed to the top of the wall and are not of special interest. The sluice channel is lined by rubble stone and scoria walls.