With the growth in traffic operating from the Continental Pier in Harwich it soon became apparent that the facilities there were no longer adequate and so, in 1879, the Great Eastern Railway Company set about creating a new quay two miles upstream in the River Stour on the site of marshland then known as Ray Island.

This was to become what is now known as Parkeston Quay, the first sailings from which occurred in September 1882. The development of the quay, and the role it played in the further growth in continental traffic, will be described as part of the exhibition.