From Dogger Bank To Pier Head

October 2, 2017 by Carole Mulroney

In 1931 the Dogger Bank earthquake hit the country and was the strongest earthquake recorded since measurements began with a magnitude of 6.1 on the Richter scale. Its effects were felt the length and breadth of the land and in Belgium and France. One humorous effect in London was the head of the waxwork of Dr Crippen at Madame Tussauds fell off.

Here in Essex, Edward (or Edwin) Cotgrove who was the Berthing Master at Southend Pier and indeed lived at the end of it, was reported as follows in the Dundee Courier recounting his story—

‘We had a rare shaking up. I thought that one of the big steamers had cut adrift and crashed into the pier. I was asleep, when suddenly I was nearly flung out of bed. I rushed outside. The sea was in a state of upheaval as if a midden gale had sprung up, although there was really no wind. The bed of the sea was throwing the water up, and the boats were bobbing about in the turmoil’.

Edwin had formerly been a fisherman and in 1901 was master of the Gannet of London.

Sometime between 1901 and 1921 he went to work on the Pier starting as a labourer. He was the son of Edwin Cotgrove and his wife Susannah, also a Cotgrove by birth. Edwin senior who was a fisherman, died in 1934 having lived for 88 years in the same cottage in Leigh.

This article is by Carole Mulroney of Leigh Lives - www.leighlives.co.uk 
To read all of Carole's previous article of the History of our little town, click here