On a bright and breezy morning our group of nine members together with four partners met at the harbourside ‘Architects’ coffee bar before embarking on a journey of discovery in the heart of Bristol.
Moored by the Arnofini museum was the TS Lord Nelson, a retired training ship equipped to give handicapped people the opportunity to experience sailing this impressive three masted vessel on which they could do many of the tasks whilst in their wheelchairs that fully able sailors would normally perform.
Across Prince Street Swing Bridge, which was the first of the dock facilities to be operated by the hydraulic system that served the entire harbour, was an abundance of interesting boats including the Balmoral passenger ship, the Pironaut fire defence boat, the Mathew which is a full-sized replica of the ship John Cabot sailed to America and two steam tugs still in working order. The four electric cranes used for moving cargo to and from the many ships which made the harbour one of the busiest in Britain are all that is left of the forty cranes operating in the harbours prime.
The adjacent M Shed built just after WW11 replaced the Corporation Granary with 8,000 tons of grain which was bombed and destroyed during the blitz. It was later converted to the museum depicting the many aspects of industrial history of Bristol.
Continuing our walk along the harbourside we passed an old steam crane next to ‘Misconduct’, the glamorous modern luxury yacht with the helicopter on board, on our way to Brunel’s SS Great Britain, in its day the largest ship afloat. A visit here can take hours so we passed it by and walked by the dry dock and yacht basin to the Underfall Yard
Here we had a conducted tour of the workshops and saw in action the massive machinery used to produce parts for ships and the harbour facilities as well a view of the enormous pumps used to develop the hydraulic power employed to open and close the gates, cranes and bridges.
Lunch at their café was very welcome break before heading back along the north side of the harbour where we saw a statue of Samuel Plimsol, a Bristolian politician who devised the Plimsol line used throughout the world to ensure that ships are not dangerously overloaded.
Some of the harbourside architecture raised complementary comment whilst other recent additions howls of contempt for either being ordinary or even ugly. What were our councillors thinking of when they approved the plans?
It was good to see Barry Suart waving to us from his top floor balcony before we reached the Lloyds amphitheatre and Pero’s Bridge over St Augustine’s Reach where we had commenced our walk almost four hours earlier.
Many thanks go to Jonathan who led the walk and researched the many facets of it's history that made it so interesting.