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Annan Waterfoot

Waterfoot prospered as a port during the period 1780 to 1848 ...

During this time emigrants from the area sailed from Waterfoot to North America. The sailing ships were not large, usually schooners and brigs of about 500 tons burden.

Annan Waterfoot illustrated by Clarkson Stanfield in 1841 (pictured on the right) shows the timber lighthouse and the two 128m (420 feet) long jetties which were constructed in 1819.

The steamships "Solway" 192 tons, "City of Carlisle" 300 tons "Newcastle" 396 tons and "Victoria" 450 tons could use the jetties even on small tides for loading passengers, goods and livestock for Liverpool.

• In 1848 this traffic transferred to the newly opened railway system.
• In the 1850s shrimp trawling and drift netting or whameling for salmon was introduced by fishermen from the Arnside area of Morecambe Bay.
• The tradition is that the Lancashire fishing fleet sought sanctuary at Waterfoot after being driven up the Solway in a storm.
• By 1900 there were 70 boats in the Annan fishing fleet but the size of the fleet slowly contracted until in 1945 only 16 boats remained.
• Within recent years the number has reduced to only one or two boats.