Bristol Channel

“ A magnificent landscape of vast extent, stretching around on every point of the compass, burst almost simultaneously on the sight, embracing views of the Bristol Channel, the mountains of South Wales and Monmouthshire, the Severn, Gloucestershire and the Malvern Hills, Bath, the Vale of White Horse in Berkshire, and the Mendip Range; while at the foot of the rich champagne valley below you, which gradually descends for about five miles, lies the city of Bristol with its numerous fine churches; and a splendid view of Clifton completed the scene. ”

“ The people of Birmingham and the Midlands generally appear to have made up their minds to have direct communication with the Bristol Channel. In regard to all of these towns canal facilities of an inferior kind already exist. These, however, are now held to be quite unequal to the demands of modern commerce. They do not give to any town the position of a seaport, and that is the main requirement. The time has gone past when barges of forty or fifty tons, plying on a canal 60 to 80 feet wide, could be seriously put forward as contributing essentially to this end. ”

“ Could the good people of Bristol be induced to dockise that very erratic stream within a respectable distance of its mouth, I am inclined to believe that many a shipowner who now sends his vessels to London would think it worth his while to escape the dangerous Channel passage by ordering them into Bristol, more especially with an equalization of railway rates. ”

“ The Great Western railway, striking into the Avon valley near Bath, serves Bristol from London, connects it with South Wales by the Severn tunnel, and with the southern and south-western counties of England. Local lines of this company encircle the city on the north and the south, serving the outports of Avonmouth and Portishead on the Bristol Channel. A trunk line of the Midland railway connects Bristol with the north of England by way of Gloucester, Worcester, Birmingham and Derby. ”

“ Minehead is a place with a history; its position on the Bristol Channel made it a port of considerable value, and throughout the Middle Ages it did a large trade with Ireland, and a foreign trade with France and Spain, only second to that of Bristol from the West of England. In the seventeenth century, like Bristol also, it had an extensive trade with Virginia and the West Indies, and it exported annually forty thousand barrels of herrings to the Mediterranean. ”

“ The runners were men of some little mark.
The Post Office at Avonmouth, a Bristol sub-office, is much used for telegraph purposes by persons on board vessels passing up and down the Kingroad in the Bristol Channel. The Bristol Corporation placed outside the port a large white notice board with "TELEGRAPH OFFICE" painted upon it in black letters, to attract the attention of mariners. The messages are chiefly received from vessels with cargoes consigned to Sharpness, which in neap tides have often to lie in the roads for days. ”

“ Any attempt at a general revival and improvement of the canal system throughout England cannot prove financially successful, as local canals, through thinly populated agricultural districts, could not compete with railways. These routes alone should be selected for enlargement of waterway which lead direct from the sea to large and increasing towns like the proposed canal from the Bristol Channel to Birmingham, or which, like the Aire and Calder Navigation and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal, are suitably set for the conveyance of coal and general bulky goods to populous districts. ”

“ In conjunction with Robert Fulton, the American engineer, he projected a canal from his estate at Holsworthy in Devonshire to the Bristol Channel, with a novel system of inclined planes and with improved locks. ”

“ All creeks, and many small streams on either side of the Bristol Channel, are “pills.” This particular name was first conferred in A.D. 882, the year when these Channel coasts in general were attacked by Danish raiders under the leadership 93of one Hubba, who was slain in battle with Alfred the Great, either near Appledore, on the North Devon Coast, at a place still known as “Bloody Corner,” or at Cannington, near the river Parret, in the neighbourhood of Bridgwater, supposed to be the “Cynuit” of ancient chronicles where the “heathenmen” were also utterly defeated by the great King. ”

“ The voyage down is performed in fine weather [pg 62] in about six hours; while, in consequence of the tide being adverse, it requires from nine to ten hours to make the voyage up the Channel. We hardly know any voyage so pleasant of the same length, for the scenery along the shores of the Severn sea, as it is well known, is singularly romantic and beautiful. We will give a rapid description of the voyage to Bristol:—Let us suppose ourselves darting between Swansea pier-heads, in the well-known Palmerston steamer, with her opponent, the Bristol, in her wake. ”

“ W. of London, is the largest town in Gloucestershire, the seventh in England, and a great seaport, with Irish, W. Indian, and S. American trade; it manufactures tobacco, boots and shoes; it has a cathedral, two colleges, a library and many educational institutions; by a charter of Edward III. it forms a county in itself.
Bristol Channel, an inlet in SW. of England, between S. Wales and Devon and Cornwall, 8 m. in length, from 5 to 43 in breadth, and with a depth of from 5 to 40 fathoms; is subject to very high tides, and as such dangerous to shipping ”

“ Home waters were hardly more secure. Rather than pay the excessive extra premium demanded for the voyage up Channel, London merchants had their goods unladen at Bristol, and carried in light flat-bottomed craft called “runners,” built specially for the traffic, up the Severn to Gloucester, thence to be carted across to Lechlade for conveyance to their destination by barge down the Thames. At the same time the North Sea packets from Edinburgh (Grangemouth) to London refused all passengers who would not undertake to assist in the defence of the vessel in emergency. ”

“ The towns which had least cause for satisfaction were Bridgnorth, Bewdley and Bristol, the traffic that had previously gone by the long land route from the Potteries to the Severn, and so on to Bristol, being now diverted to Liverpool by the Grand Trunk Canal, just as the salt of Cheshire had been taken there on the opening of the Weaver navigation, and the textiles of Manchester on the completion of the Duke of Bridgewater's canal. ”

“ Its head is nearly four hundred feet higher than its mouth, which readily accounts for the great number of locks. There is also a canal from the Swansea to the Neath canal, on which a packet-boat is established, and a tram-road from the former to Oystermouth. With Bristol and Ilfracombe there is a regular communication kept up by means of steam-vessels, which leave and arrive according to the state of the tide. ”

“ Ostmen from Waterford and Dublin, Northmen from the Western Isles and the more distant Orkneys, and even from Norway itself, had long ago learnt to avoid the shock of the 'Higra,' the mighty current which still kept its heathen name derived from the sea-god of their forefathers, and make it serve to float them into the safe and commodious harbour of Bristol, where a thousand ships could ride at anchor. As the great trading centre of the west Bristol ranked as the third city in the kingdom, surpassed in importance only by Winchester and London. ”

“ The introduction of steam navigation has, at this port, given an energy and extension to the Irish trade that far exceeds any previous expectations; each succeeding month brings a vast increase of import and a corresponding export, to the material benefit of each kingdom, and the [Pg 149] more complete the intercourse can be established the more important will the trade become.
"The port of Bristol, from its position, possesses numerous capabilities for a mail packet station. Its contiguity and means of land and water communication with the capital ”

“ During the year 1888 attention was called to a project for the union of the Bristol and English Channels by a ship canal, running from Stolford, near Bridgwater, which has the advantage of being opposite Cardiff, viâ Bridgwater, Taunton, and Exeter, to Langstone Point, on the west side of Exmouth Bight, where the southern harbour would be formed. ”

“ He replied, “No, let him stay there; he is unworthy much attention, as he did not try to assist when the ship was in great danger. I have £4 paid by the Portuguese Government for your passage to Bristol.” He gave it to me, saying, “you are well entitled to it; I will give you a little more when you come to Bristol.” We shortly afterwards went ashore in the boat, leaving the pilot in charge. We did not arrive in Bristol until two days, owing to the wind being so much against her. We proceeded on our way to Bristol, when the captain asked me if I would go into an hotel and take some refreshment ”

“ This was the greatest length of navigation, unaided by artificial means, of any river in the kingdom. The early Britons passed along it in their coracles, and, as these were supplemented by vessels of an improved type, trade was developed, towns and cities—each a storehouse or an entrepôt for a more or less considerable area—began to arise on the banks, while Bristol attained to the dignity of a great national port when Liverpool was still only an insignificant fishing village. ”

“ Bristol has glassworks, potteries, soap works, tanneries, sugar refineries, and chemical works, shipbuilding and machinery yards. Coal is worked extensively within the limits of the borough. The export and import trade is large and varied, it being one of the leading English ports in the foreign trade. Regular navigation across the Atlantic was first established here, and the Great Western, the pioneer steamship in this route, was built here. There is a harbor in the city itself, and the construction of new docks at Avonmouth and Portishead has given a fresh impetus to the port. ”

“ This canal was to commence at the end of the Kennet and Avon Canal, at Bath, and to run parallel with the River Avon, on its southern bank, to the town of Keynshamn, where the line crosses to the opposite bank; thence, running parallel to Crew's Hole, it leaves the river, and crosses the upper end of Pyle Marsh to Old Market Street, in the city of Bristol, and from whence there was to be a short cut, locking down into the Bristol Dock, or Floating Harbour. ”

“ The Board did not give up the case, for in the Annual Report 28th January, 1833, it was stated that the proposition for establishing at this port a mail packet station by steam vessels to the South of Ireland was being diligently pursued, and that the House of Commons having appointed a Committee to enquire into the communications between England and Ireland, a favourable opportunity was presented of again urging the advantages Bristol port was calculated to afford. ”

“ Even before the Manchester and Runcorn Canal was opened for traffic, Brindley had started on a much bolder project. The new scheme was one for a canal connecting the Mersey with the Trent, and, also, with the Severn, thus opening up direct inland water communication between Liverpool, Hull and Bristol, and affording an alternative to road transport not only for the Potteries, but, by means of branch canals, for the industrial centres of Staffordshire and Worcestershire, then, as it were, more or less landlocked. ”

“ But with your majesty's leave, the first thing to be done is to ascertain that a vessel can be hired. There are plenty of ship-masters, plenty of ships, and plenty of seamen to be found at Bristol, but one doesn't know whom to trust. Or rather, I should say, one can't trust any of the skippers, since most of them are Roundheads. But if you desire it I will go with your majesty to Bristol to-morrow night. At the Dolphin, a tavern near the quay, frequented by seafaring men, we may be able to pick up some information. ”

“ In favour of Bristol it may be fairly stated that, at a comparatively trifling expense, the port may be made commodious for a packet station; that the present strength of the establishment at Milford would serve, with some addition, for that of Bristol; that the difference in price of coal at Portishead would reduce the expense of sailing the packets from that station; that Bristol affords every prospect of increase of receipt, whilst at Milford it must, for the reasons before stated, necessarily decrease ”

“ By an act of the 43rd George III. entitled, 'An Act for improving and rendering more commodious the Port and Harbour of Bristol,' the mayor, burgesses and commonalty of the city of Bristol, and their successors; the master, wardens and commonalty of merchant venturers of the said city, and their successors, and several other persons were incorporated by the name and style of "The Bristol Dock Company," and were empowered to raise among themselves £250,000, in shares of £100 each ”

“ The fleet unit, which was suggested and which has been accepted by Australia, and to which the government contributed a certain sum per annum, is to be composed of one armored cruiser of the type of the Indomitable, three protected cruisers, six destroyers and three submarines. Now the fleet which we have agreed to accept is to be composed of four Bristols, one Boadicea, and six destroyers. "A Bristol is a protected cruiser, which means that it has a steel deck which protects all the vital parts of the ship. It has a tonnage of 4,800 tons, with a speed of 25 knots. ”

“ Four years after this act of the legislature, (in 1811) a company, consisting of two hundred and eighty-three persons, many of whom were proprietors of the Kennet and Avon Canal, obtained an act, for making a canal between the cities of Bath and Bristol, which was entitled, ' An Act for making a navigable Canal between the cities of Bath and Bristol ”