Egremont : 1761 - 1861
The Liverpool Harbour Master, John Askew, built a fine villa about one mile north of Seacombe and named it Egremont after his birth place in Cumbria. The name was gradually applied to the whole district. Askew was 'pulled across daily in his galley' to reach his work in Liverpool and by 1823 he was allowing friends and others (on payment of fee) to use the landing place at the bottom of garden. Concerned at these developments, the Smith Trustees accused Askew of infringing the Seacombe rights of passage and started court proceedings aimed at preventing Askew using his private landing for public use. The judgment went against the Trustees, the court ruling that 'the owners of the Seacombe passage exercised no rights over the strand to the north'.
With his position apparently secure, Askew purchased the ferry rights from the Commissioners for Woods and Forests for £3,000 and leased the shore line. He planned to build an iron pier, purchase a paddle steamer and start a regular ferry service with a view to opening up the district for industrial and residential purposes, financing the erection of a two-storey hotel with gardens reaching down to the water's edge. The site was hardly ideal for a ferry as the river bed was very flat, fallings 3 feet 10 inches in every 100 foot so to provide the depth of water for a paddle steamer to approach at low tide, a pier needed to be at least 750 feet long. Such a structure was unlikely to be approved by the River Conservancy so Askew decided to build a shorter structure to be used by steamers only when it was absolutely safe to do so. It was 200 foot long, and built entirely of wood, stakes being driven deep into the rocks. It ran out from a stone concourse protected by a high quay on which stood a ferry house and several small workshops. To warn shipping, three tall masts, each carrying an enormous storm lamp, were mounted on the end of the pier. Construction was hampered by foul weather and the official opening was delayed until the summer of 1830.
Askew purchased a second-hand paddler, 'Loch Eck' in August 1830 and a service commenced. It was evidently sufficiently for Askew to order a similar but larger new paddler 'John Rigby' which entered service in 1831; a third vessel, the second-hand 'Hero' was added to the fleet in 1832. In that year, Gore's Directory listen an hourly-service from North Pier, George's Dock Basin either by steam or sail. The latter would have been used at low tide when the pier was inaccessible to steamers or when they have been withdrawn for towing becalmed sailing ships, generally a more lucrative proposition. In 1834, shelters were provided on the pier and a mercury clock mounted on the hotel front to regulate the sailings.
The service was frequently suspended without warning when towing work was on offer; this was one of the charges which Askew faced during a Public Inquiry into his involvement with the Wallasey Pool conversion scheme. As an employee of Liverpool Corporation, he was ordered to disclose details of all his business activities as his employers were angry that he had given moral and financial support to a scheme which was likely to damage their interests; this was a direct contravention of an undertaking made to the Corporation as part of his conditions of service. Ferry users criticised the poor management of Egremont ferry and questioned the morality of the Harbour Master dispatching his privately-owned vessels to rescue becalmed ships. Askew retained his job until 1841 but was required to relinquish control of Egremont ferry. He sold to assets to the Egremont Steam Company, formed in October 1835 with a capital of £15,000. Askew retained ownership of the land on which the ferry buildings stood and on 22nd February 1836 renewed his lease to the shore line. agreeing to pay the Commissioners of Woods and Forests £50 per annum for 31 years. As a placatory gesture, Askew undertook to finance a 50 foot extension of the existing wooden pier.