Bristol Harbour

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The 70 acre (0.28 km²) harbour was created by installing lock gates on a tidal stretch of the River Avon in the centre of the city, giving it the name Floating Harbour as it is not affected by the tides. The harbour branches from the navigable River Avon at Netham Weir in east Bristol. The first mile of the harbour is the artificial Feeder Canal, the River following its original route. Beside Bristol Temple Meads railway station the harbour rejoins the original route of the Avon and meanders through, Bristol city centre, Canons Marsh and Hotwells, where it rejoins the river and flows into the Avon Gorge. Between Temple Meads and Hotwells, at a distance never more than one kilometre south of the harbour, the Avon flows through the artificial New Cut, reducing currents and silting in the harbour and preventing flooding.

Bristol Harbour was the original Port of Bristol, but as ships, and their cargo, increased in size, it has now been largely replaced by docks at Avonmouth and Portbury, 5 km downstream at the mouth of the River Avon. The harbour is now a tourist attraction, with museums, exhibitions, bars and nightclubs. Old workshops and warehouses have now largely been converted or replaced by cultural uses, such as the Arnolfini art gallery, Watershed media and arts centre, Bristol Industrial Museum and At-Bristol science exhibition center as well as a number of fashionable apartment buildings. Museum boats are permanently berthed in the harbour, including Isambard Kingdom Brunel's SS Great Britain, the first iron hulled, propeller driven ocean liner, a replica of the Matthew, in which John Cabot discovered, in the modern era, North America at what is now known as Newfoundland, and a steam tug, the Mayflower.

The Bristol Ferry Boat operates on the harbour, serving landing stages close to most of the harbour-side attractions and also providing a commuter service to and from the city centre and Bristol Temple Meads railway station. Other vessels, including those run by The Bristol Packet Company, provide sightseeing services on the harbour, up the River Avon to Bath and downstream to Avonmouth. The historic vessels of the Industrial Museum (including the Mayflower) are periodically operated.

In late July each year, the Bristol Harbour Festival is held, with an influx of interesting boats, for example, tall ships, Royal Navy vessels and lifeboats.

Contents 1 History 2 Sections, quays & harbourside features 2.1 Underfall Yard 2.2 Warehouses 3 The harbourside today 4 Gallery 5 References 6 External links 6.1 Photographs

[edit] History

Bristol grew up on the banks of the Rivers Avon and Frome, and since the 16th century the rivers have been modified for use as docks, including the diversion of the River Frome into Saint Augustine's Reach.

The River Avon, like the River Severn, has heavy tides of about 30 ft (10 m) between high and low, being easily navigable at high-tide but reduced to a muddy channel at low tide in which ships would often run aground in the Avon Gorge. Many ships were deliberately stranded in the harbour for unloading, giving rise to the phrase "shipshape and Bristol fashion" to describe boats capable of taking the strain of repeatedly being stranded.^[1]

In the 18th Century Liverpool grew, developing docks in competition with Bristol for the tobacco trade. Coastal trade was also important with the area called "Welsh Back" concentrating on trows with cargoes from the Slate industry in Wales, stone, timber and coal.^[2] The poor quality of Bristol's docks were causing problems to business so in 1802 William Jessop proposed installing a dam and lock at Hotwells to create the harbour. The UK£ 530,000 scheme was approved by parliament, and construction began in May 1804. The scheme included the construction of the Cumberland Basin, a large wide stretch of the harbour in Hotwells where the Quay walls and bollards have listed building status.^[3]

The tidal new cut was constructed from Netham to Hotwells, with another dam installed at this end of the harbour, the Feeder Canal between Temple Meads and Netham provided a link to the tidal river so that boats could continue upstream to Bath. However, the new scheme required a way to equalise the levels inside and outside the Dock for the passage of vessels to and from the Avon, and bridges to cross the water. Jessop built Cumberland Basin with two entrance locks from the tidal Avon, of width 45 feet and 35 feet, and a junction lock (width 45 feet) between the Basin and what became known as the Floating Harbour. This arrangement provided flexibility of operation with the Basin being used as a lock when there were large numbers of arrivals and sailings. The harbour was officially opened on May 1 1809.^[4]

The size of the lock caused problems when the SS Great Britain was launched. Jessop's 45-foot lock could not accommodate Brunel's 48-foot beam SS Great Britain. She was being towed away from her builders to have her engines and interior fitted out on the River Thames but unfortunately was fractionally too big to go through. The ship was moored in the Floating Harbour for a year or more before proceeding into Cumberland Basin, with coping stones and lock gate platforms removed from the Junction Lock.^[5]

The harbour cost more than anticipated and high rates were levied to repay loans, countering any effect the new harbour had at drawing companies back from Liverpool. In 1848 the city council bought the docks company to force down the rates and employed Isambard Kingdom Brunel, who had already built the Bristol Harbour Railway (a branch of his Great Western Railway) to make improvements, including new lock gates, a dredger and a sluice gates designed to reduce siltation.

In 1867 ships were getting larger, and the meanders in the river Avon prevented boats over 300 ft (90 m) reaching the harbour. A scheme to install a much larger lock at Avonmouth to float the entire river and to straighten the sharper bends was dropped after work began on the much cheaper docks at Avonmouth and Portishead.

The present entrance lock was designed by Thomas Howard and opened in July 1873. This has a 62 foot width and is the only entrance lock now in use at the City Docks.^[6]

In 1908 the Royal Edward Dock was built in Avonmouth, and in 1972 the large deepwater Royal Portbury Dock was constructed on the opposite side of the mouth of the Avon, making Bristol Harbour redundant as a freight dock. A sand company was the last to abandon the docks in 1981.

The old swing bridge was powered by water pressure from the Underfall Yard hydraulic engine house at 750 Pound-force per square inch (psi). The new Plimsoll Bridge, completed in 1965, has a more modern electro-hydraulic system using oil at a pressure of 4,480 psi.^[7]

[edit] Sections, quays & harbourside features

1. Prince's Wharf, including the Bristol Harbour Railway and Industrial Museum
2. Dry docks, SS Great Britain
3. St Augustine's Reach, Pero's Bridge
4. Bathurst Basin
5. Queen's Square
6. Bristol Temple Meads railway station
7. Castle Park
8. Redcliffe Quay
9. Baltic Wharf marina
10. Cumberland Basin & Brunel Locks
11. The New Cut
12. Netham Locks, entrance to the Feeder Canal
13. Marsh Basin
14. Temple Quay
15. St Augustine's Parade
16. Canons Marsh, including Millennium Square and At-Bristol
17. Underfall Yard
18. Bristol Bridge

[edit] Underfall Yard

The damming of the river to make the harbour had created new land where the docks maintenance facility was established and remains today. William Jessop had created a weir in the dam at Underfall to allow surplus water to flow back into the New Cut, this was known as the 'Overfall'. By the 1830s the Floating Harbour was suffering from severe silting so Isambard Kingdom Brunel devised a solution. In place of the Overfall he constructed three shallow sluices and one deep scouring sluice between the harbour and the New Cut, together with a dredging vessel. This drag boat would scrape the silt away from the quay walls. When the deep sluice opened at low tide, a powerful undertow sucked the silt into the river to be carried away on the next tide. The shallow sluices enabled adjustment of the dock water level according to weather conditions.^[8]

Several old buildings, from the 1880s, remain at Underfall Yard and have listed building status. The octagonal brick and terracotta chimney of the hydraulic engine house dates from 1888, and is grade II* listed,^[9] as is the Hydraulic engine house its self. It is built of red brick with a slate roof and contains hydraulic pumping machinery dated 1907 by Fullerton, Hodgart and Barclay of Paisley, and powers the docks hydraulic system of cranes, bridges and locks.^[10] The former pattern-maker's shop and stores dates from the same period and are grade II listed,^[11] as are the Patent slip and quay walls.^[12]

[edit] Warehouses

A large number of warehouses were built around the harbour for storage and trade. Many survive today and some are being converted into apartment blocks but many have been demolished as part of the regeneration of the area. One which has survived is the "A Bond Tobacco Warehouse", which was built in 1905 and was the first of the 3 brick Bonds in the Cumberland Basin, and is a grade II listed building.^[13]

The Arnolfini art gallery occupies Bush House, a 19th century Grade II* listed tea warehouse.^[14] and the Watershed Media Centre occupies another disused warehouse.

[edit] The harbourside today

Since the 1980s millions of pounds have been spent regenerating the harbourside, including the construction of Pero's footbridge, linking the brand new At-Bristol exhibition with other Bristol tourist attractions, and private investors constructing studio apartment buildings.

The Cumberland basin is used by a variety of small boats from sailing clubs and is surrounded by tourist attractions. The old hydraulic pumping station has been converted into a public house and is a grade II listed building.^[15]

The Bristol Harbour Railway and Industrial Museum runs along Prince's Wharf and Wapping Wharf (grade II listed^[16]

[edit] Gallery

Bristol Bridge and the Floating Harbour, seen from a tethered passenger balloon. Most of the central part of the City of Bristol is shown here	Bristol Bridge and the Floating Harbour	Ferry in the harbour	Replica sailing ship in Bristol Floating harbour, July 2004
Industrial Museum from the pedestrian bridge	Floating Restaurant in the harbour	The Matthew turning outside the Arnolfini during a harbour cruise

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Bristol City Council: Harbour events and attractions Marine and waterway services
• About Bristol: History of the Harbour
• A history of the docks
• Bristol Packet Boat Trips
• Bristol City Docks

[edit] Photographs

• The Floating Harbour