When I am chatting with my sister, she often mentions her trips to Bristol for work. While talking with her one weekend, I pulled up the map of Bristol to see where the office is that she goes to. As I looked around the area, I realized that the docks area of Bristol looked really interesting and is somewhere that I haven’t explored before. When it seemed that we would have one free day while in the UK and the Bristol was only about 90 minutes away, we decided to pay it a visit.
The weather was not as cooperative as we might have hoped but it was just about okay and we headed off. We parked up right in the middle of the docks area so were able to start exploring straight away. There was a ton to see and there will be more blog posts that cover some of the specific aspects of the area. This is more of an introduction post. The docks are connected to the River Avon but, as I discovered while we walked around, the river is very tidal and the docks are only functional because the access is via locks. This allows the maintenance of a decent water level in the port.
We wandered around the docks for quite a while. There are commercial vessels, some small remaining boatyards, lots of pleasure craft and all of the ancillary businesses that support them. The docks boomed in the 1800s after the construction of the current configuration at the beginning of that century. The docks are along the original Avon course but, once the locks were created to maintain the water level, a new cut was made for the river south of the docks to connect up with the river course upstream. Consequently the river flows normally without the docks being affected.
The housing up on the hills overlooking the docks might be similarly old but they seem to be painted up in a variety of colors to provide quite a cheerful appearance on what would otherwise be rather dull architecture. One thing about Bristol that you can’t ignore is the terrain. There is low lying ground near the river and docks but the hills rising up are steep and you certainly notice it when you start walking around. This means that rows of houses are visible from the docks as they are layered up the side of the hills.
Nancy and I were having lunch at a great pub on Spice Island called The Still and West. I would certainly recommend it if you are in the area. We were watching the many different boats as they came in and out of the Harbour entrance. One boat was heading out which seemed curious. It was a low profile vessel, looked like it was designed to look suspicious and, when you look closer, it has a FLIR installation on the bridge. Since this is Portsmouth, it could well be a military vessel but that doesn’t preclude it being one for an overseas customer or just a company or individual with rather specialized interests. I wonder which it is.
