Since the construction of the Cross Keys Bridge and embankment, and then the arrival of the railways, the main event in the history of Sutton Bridge was the construction (soon followed by the collapse) of the dock. The instigator of the project was George Frederick Young of Osborne House, Wisbech, who in 1875 secured the Act of Parliament creating the Sutton Bridge Dock Company. The first ship entered the dock on 14 May 1881. Problems soon arose, however, due to the dock being built on quick silt. The dock basin begain to collapse and infill in 1882, with shipping having to be diverted until repairs could be conducted. No satisfactory repair plans were ever devised, and so the decision to abandon the dock basin ws made by 1899. In the dock area were dock chambers (offices), a hydraulic engine house, a wooden warehouse, a coil hoist, a slope for unloading timber and an acid plant (1913-18). A short length of railway connected the dock buildings to the Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway line between Spalding and King's Lynn, to the immediate west of Sutton Bridge station. {1}{2}{3}{4} With most of the dock site having been abandoned in 1899, plans were drawn up to convert much of the site into a 9-hole golf course. The Sutton Bridge Golf Club was duly established in 1914, and remains in use to the current day. A small part of the former dock site remains in industrial use, at the south-eastern riverside end. {5}{6}