Archifdy Ceredigion Archives

Aberystwyth Harbour Records - Introduction

ACC. 442, 446

Ref: CDD/ABM/HA/1

Transferred to the Cardiganshire Record Office

by Ceredigion Museum.

16th April and 23rd May 1984.

The following collection contains records

relating to Aberystwyth harbour, to the

Aberystwyth and Aberdovey Steam Packet Company

one of the major steamship companies in this

area, and to three ships owned by the company,

the S.S. Countess of Lisburne, the S.S. Dora and

the S.S. Grosvenor, which sailed regularly

between Aberystwyth and Liverpool. The records

cover the period c. 1900 to c. 1914. The precise

relationship between the harbour records and

those of the Aberystwyth and Aberdovey Steam

Packet Company is not clear, nor is it known if

they came together by design or by chance. Any

original administrative order has been lost.

The records have been divided into eight main

categories. These commence with the ships'

manifests, which accompanied each sailing, and

which give details of the cargo of the ship, the

names and addresses of the consignees etc. These

have been arranged in date order, beginning with

the manifests of the S.S. Countess of Lisburne,

continuing with those of the S.S. Dora, and ending

with those of the S.S. Grosvenor. These form a

natural sequence, with the mandate numbers follow-

ing on from one ship to another. Some of the

manifests have survived intact, and some are so

fragmentary that neither the date nor the ship can

be identified. The remainder of the collection

has been arranged in the following categories:

Harbour records [financial]; Harbour records

[correspondence]; Aberystwyth and Aberdovey Steam

Packet Company [legal and administrative papers];

Aberystwyth and Aberdovey Steam Packet Company

[financial]; Aberystwyth and Aberdovey Steam

Packet Company [correspondence]; Consignment notes

[these notes accompanied individual loads or items

of cargo; they were probably filed by date of

arrival of the cargo in Aberystwyth, but the

original order has not been preserved, and many

notes are undated; the notes have been sorted into

commodities, and within these broad categories,

into major suppliers; Advice notes [this is a

small group and represents a few of the advice notes

issued by the shipping and railway companies. They

have been listed in date order].

see ABM/PL/1-8 for plans of Aberystwyth Harbour 1835-56

for photographs and postcards see ADX 146

for tallies for monies advanced to the Trustees of

the Harbour of Aberystwyth, the 1874 Aberystwyth Harbour Act

certificate of annuities and transfers of annuities, see

SMB/A/VI/94-109.