[From Crown Agent's Letter Book 2]

Proposed Development by Boscow + Byne 1836

Letter to Boscow 28th Novbr 1836

I have had you & Mr Byne's application to the Commrs of Woods &c sent to me for a report but before I can do so with any degree of satisfaction there must be laid before me at your own expense a survey admeasurement & map of what you wish to have a lease to enclose, and when that is done I shall take the matter into my concern and make such report as the case requires

I would strongly recommend to you & Mr Byne to consult with Mr Brown who has the charge of the harbour who will give you much useful advice as to the embanking, & whose son is a very fit person to make the survey to measure the same and to give a plan thereof.

Letter to A Milne 2nd Decr 1836

I had the &c to receive your letter of the 22nd ult enclosing application from Mr Nichs Boscow & F B Byne for lease to enclose a certain portion of the seashore for a market place & desiring me to report thereon.

In answer thereto I enclose a copy of the letter I thought proper to address to them on the subject which in the first instance I hope the Board will approve of before I make the report which I shall do when they furnish me with the plan.

Letter to A Milne 30th Dec 1836

Sir

In further answer to your letter of the 22nd ult enclosing application from Messrs Boscow and Byne for license to enclose a certain portion of the seashore (which letter and application have during my illness been somehow or other mislaid.) I have now to refer you to a survey and plan of the Bay of Douglas, and a particular survey and map showing the extent and boundary of the proposed enclosure; I have also had an estimate laid before me of the expense of the embankment wall, given by Mr Brown resident Engineer here, who is making some improvements in the harbour according to the designs of Sir John Rennie and, as he Mr Brown, had the superintendance of Holyhead harbour improvements, he is a person whose judgement may be relied upon. I have had a good deal of conversation with him on the subject, and though the estimate is only £3213, he says with contingencies, it may be fairly set down at £4110. And this is such an enormous sum, that although the public improvement would be very great it staggers the applicants, and they doubt of it being a profitable concern even though the crown were disposed to give a grant of the premises.

Nevertheless if they can obtain such a grant they are disposed to make the expenditure as formerly mentioned there is an absolute necessity for having the market removed from the place where it is now held, as it is in the greatest thoroughfare of the Town, and far too small for the increasing population and there is great difficulty in obtaining any suitable place for it, unless this part of the sea beach be enclosed, which if done from its locality and easy access, would be a most desirable place.

I have also to mention that the town is rapidly increasing towards Casle Mona, and Sand Street being at present the only way to the town is so narrow as scarcely allowing one carriage passing another and is so filthy (it being the St Giles of the Isle of Man that the proposed enclosure would form a most beautiful and desirable approach) while a row of houses built to front the sea, would hide the nakedness of the land and complete the most beautiful bay perhaps, in the King's dominions.

I have also had communications on this subject with the Commissioners of Highways, the High Bailiff of Douglas, and other influential persons, and they all declare it would be one of the greatest improvements that could possibly take place, and I doubt not if the grant be obtained, it will be carried into effect by public and private contribution, and joint stock speculation; and as the Beach in question, is of no use whatever to the Crown, nor in all human probability, will ever yield a farthing of revenue, and as the proposed grant would tend to the public benefit of his Majesty's lieges, I would with great deference strongly recommend it to the Crown, to give a grant of the same, under condition that at least 2 acres should be set aside, for a market place & that the embankment, and filling up, shall be completed within 5 years from the date of the grant, and the grantees leaving and making, a road according to the plan of least 40 feet wide.

The Board will see that this grant will include a small stripe belonging the crown, at present occupied by Mr Aitkin, and the speculators will have to purchase a small house, at the corner, in order to have a proper entrance into the parade.

To shew the Board the increase in value of the property in this Bay, it is but 5 years since I pressed upon Government to purchase Castle Mona, as a residence for the Governor, which cost the Duke nearly £30000 and they might have obtained it and nearly 200 acres of land attached for £16000 the sum for which it was sold, and now the Castle and a very few acres have been resold for £17000 while a much larger sum has been realized from other parts of the lands already sold by the parties who then purchased it, and a considerable portion is yet retained. The Island has now become a fashionable watering place, and the manoral rights being in possession of the Crown, affords an additional reason, for a grant which will so much add to the beauty and tone of the Town of Douglas.

I have the honor &c

Notes

This would appear to be a very similar scheme to that undertaken 40 years later under Lt Governor Loch now known as the Loch Promenade - the major difference is that the later scheme incorporated a new Pier - the Victoria Pier - that occupies the reclaimed ground that was probably intended in this plan for a new market place. The strip of land leased to Mr Aitkin would appear to be that used as a shipyard - the best known output of which was the "first King Orry was built by Messrs Aitkin and Co., of Liverpool, at Douglas, on the site where the Peveril Hotel now stands."[Manx Quarterly 12 June 1913] - the Peveril Hotel stood opposite to Victoria Terminal.

McCrone describes Sand Street as the Manx St Giles, a notorious slum in London from the mid 18th Century until its clearance in the late 1840s by the building of New Oxford Street. Others have commented on the narrowness of Sand Street (now known as Strand St) and indeed the Duke of Atholl bought one property in order to widen the entrance to it, but none with the strong criticism implied by McCrone.

Nicholas Boscow was a corn merchant, originally established in Ramsey, but by the early 1830s in Douglas. He established a large steam flour mill and associated bakery, but his involvement in property speculation in the late 1830's saw him use a Mormon emigration scheme to evade his creditors.

Francis Bisley Byne was noted, along with G W Dumbell, as joint owners of an unsuccesful lead mine in Newtonards - he occupied Burleigh house on the Peel Road..