Port of Bristol

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St Augustine's Reach and Pero's Bridge, during the 2004 Harbour Festival.

The Port of Bristol comprises the commercial, and former commercial, docks situated in and near the city of Bristol in England. The Port of Bristol (Authority) was the commercial title of the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks when they were operated by Bristol City Council, which ceased trade when a dock lease was granted to The Bristol Port Company.

[edit] History

For more information on the history of the different dock complexes, see the articles on Bristol Harbour, Avonmouth Docks and the Royal Portbury Dock respectively.

The Port of Bristol grew up on the banks of the Rivers Avon and Frome, at their confluence upstream of the Avon Gorge which connects the city with the Bristol Channel. This part of the port is known as Bristol Harbour, and in the 1800s was enclosed by locks, together with a diversion of the River Avon, resulting in its alternative name of the Floating Harbour.

The navigation of the Avon Gorge always presented a challenge, and became more and more difficult as ships got larger. In 1908 the Royal Edward Dock, the first of the Avonmouth Docks, was built to the north of the mouth of the River Avon and with direct access to the Severn estuary and Bristol Channel.

The Royal Portbury Dock

In 1972 the large deep water Royal Portbury Dock, across the river mouth from the Royal Edward Dock was constructed, again with direct access to the Bristol Channel.

These developments rendered the old Floating Harbour redundant as a commercial dock, and it has since been redeveloped as the centrepiece of many leisure, residential and retail developments in and around Bristol City Centre. A sand company was the last to use the docks commercially in 1981.

In 1991 The Bristol Port Company, a private company, purchased a 150 year lease of the Avonmouth and Royal Portbury Docks from Bristol City Council. Since then over £330m has been invested in the docks and the annual tonnage throughput has increased from 4m tonnes to 12m tonnes.