Embankment scheme as much as possible, even though he could not stop it. It was clearly a bitter and petty game of tit for tat.
Mayor Simpson installed his own man, the amazingly named Onesimus Smart Bartlett, as town clerk, who launched long and costly legal actions to try and overturn the decision to pay for the North Embankment – all were unsuccessful. Obviously someone trusted by Mr Simpson, it’s interesting to note that Mr Smart was jailed for embezzlement later in his life.
Mayor Simpson even got himself elected to the Harbour Commission with a fellow Anti-embankment councillor, a Mr Turner, to try and cause trouble. Mr Turner then had a change of heart and embraced the Embankment scheme, helping the other Harbour Board members disqualify Mayor Simpson from sitting on the board.
The Harbour commission’s workmen were, throughout 1883 and 1884, working hard on the
Work begins on enclosing the Boatfloat
South Embankment, which was clearly going to make a massive difference to the town, its economy and its beauty.
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Mayor Simpson then refused to pay. He said he would not authorise the payment of fees for the North Embankment. The contractors had a contract and duly continued to build, with the harbour commission paying the bills and slowly bankrupting themselves.
The contractors finished their amazing job in the Summer of 1885. They requested payment and were offered bonds in lieu of cash. They refused, and the Dart Harbour Board was forced to call in the receivers. They were forced to borrow large sums and slowly worked their way out of the mire. Despite the continued obsessive bitterness from Mayor Simpson, the Embankment was embraced wholeheartedly by the town, and in 1889 the first large imposing building was built on it – the Raleigh Hotel and Post Office. Walking along the
Embankment you could hardly believe anyone would be against it – but the scheme to build it seems to have brought more bitterness and dirty tricks than any other in the history of the town.
Good thing it was important enough to argue over, eh?
by Phil Scoble
All photos provided by the Dartmouth Museum
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