Charlestown Harbour is a small historic port in Cornwall, originally built in the late 1700s. It is the last open Georgian Port and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, attracting tourists and film studios to visit the picturesque small harbour.
Beckett Rankine has designed and project managed repairs and regeneration work for Charlestown Harbour, including the current work package to replace the lock gate.
In 2021, winter storms inflicted significant damage to the outer harbour and water entered the historic stone wall, leading to a section collapsing into the sea.
Beckett Rankine was brought on board to design and oversee the repairs.
The site is difficult for construction equipment to access. A creative solution was implemented by importing large quantities of crushed rock from a nearby quarry to build a temporary causeway that gave a solid platform for construction.
We also faced the challenge of keeping the waves outside the harbour and away from the works, especially at higher tidal levels. Our solution was to fill empty shipping containers with some of the crushed rock, placing them in the Harbour entrance as a temporary breakwater. This simple and practical measure proved highly effective and kept the waves at bay, even when the tide came in.
Once work was complete, the containers were removed and recycled, and the quarry rock reused on other projects.
The gate finally succumbed to winter storms in October 2024, with a breach allowing water to drain from the inner harbour. The lock gate was determined to no longer be safe and a temporary solution was put in place.
Beckett Rankine co-ordinated the emergency response which included transporting historic ships to a nearby harbour.
We have designed a new, modular lock gate to replace the existing one with a style that is in-keeping with the harbour’s heritage.
In April 2025, the lock gate was lifted and removed by ConstructEx – the first time since it was installed in the 1970s. The replacement is due to be installed in summer 2025.
