The cold weather took a welcome break and the sun shone in Bristol on 11th May for our meet-up at the Underfall Yard in the Bristol Floating Harbour. There was a pretty unanimous view that it was a great day at a pretty special place. Twenty or so of us met travelling from the West, East and South. Food and refreshments, history, engineering and then more food and refreshment. A typical AOA outing!
For those that couldn’t make it I would heartily recommend you visit and if you can get on a group tour.
It was great to see everyone and particularly two faces from our past in Mike and Pauline Rowe. Mike edited the Annual Bulletin for many years as well as owning Titania ‘Nyeri’ in the late 1970s and 1980s.
We started with lunch in the Pickles cafe overlooking the docks. Time to catch up on all things Atalanta, plans for the year and to reflect on the wonderful weather! Refreshed and re-acquainted we turned our attention to Bristol…..
Underfalls Yard Tour
We then started an excellent private guided tour of the Underfall Yard. This tour is highly recommended to those who have not already been, allowing access to areas not open to general visitors. I had expected a boatyard but in practice Underfall was, and is, much more. It includes the pump house which powered hydraulic lock gates, cranes and other equipment throughout the extensive ‘Bristol Floating Harbour’, and the workshops that were used to maintain that equipment. This pump house was a great, and simple, piece of engineering. Three waterpumps (electric for 100 years or so, steam prior to that) pump water into a vertical pipe to raise a 107 ton weight in the air. This generated sufficient pressure in that vertical pipe to operate the equipment around the docks. The yard also houses the underwater sluices which control the water level in the Floating Harbour. Indeed the yard gets its name from these ‘Underfall’ sluices which replaced the earlier ‘Overfall’ weir.
(Click on a photo to open a slideshow)
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AOA_Events We had a guided tour of Underfall Yard which started at a model of the Floating Harbour and River Avon around Bristol
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Walking towards the Underfall yard at the Western end of Bristol’s Floating Harbour for our 2019 AOA Bristol get together.
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AOA_Events The patent slipway at Underfall
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AOA_Events The magnificent pump house which generated hydraulic pressure for equipment around the docks
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AOA_Events One of the boatyards
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AOA_Events Boatyard activity
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AOA_Events Boatyard activity
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AOA_Events The view from standing on top of the ‘Underfall’ sluices
Underdalls is operated by a charitable Trust. A number of traditional businesses lease space in the yard, including shipwrights, riggers, kayak builders and more. And the Trust are slowly restoring the workshop and plant of the yard. The workshop includes some amazing working machinery including an enormous metal plane and a similarly impressive lathe.
(Click on a photo to open a slideshow)
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AOA_Events The Workshop with twin line shafts
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AOA_Events That is quite a lathe!
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AOA_Events The workshop operator had our attention
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AOA_Events Gantry hoist
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AOA_Events A large metal planer
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AOA_Events The workshop
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AOA_Events Blacksmith heaven
After the yard tour we took a brief trip around the harbour on rather crowded ferries before settling in to the Cottage Inn on the waterside for an excellent supper.
(Click on a photo to open a slideshow)
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AOA_Events Around the Bristol Floating Harbour
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AOA_Events Shrek inspired counterbalances for the lifting bridge
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AOA_Events The River Frome flows into the docks under the streets and down these steps in the heart of the city.
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AOA_Events Around the Bristol Floating Harbour
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AOA_Events Around the Bristol Floating Harbour
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AOA_Events Around the Bristol Floating Harbour
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AOA_Events Around the Bristol Floating Harbour
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AOA_Events SS Great Britain, now landlocked
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AOA_Events Looking West towards Underfalls yard
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AOA_Events Around the Bristol Floating Harbour
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AOA_Events Around the Bristol Floating Harbour
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AOA_Events Around the Bristol Floating Harbour
Bristol Floating Harbour
These photos were taken during a stroll around the harbour. Click on a photo to view the gallery.
You can read more about the history of the harbour on Wikipedia.
Pyronaut - an aptly named fire-boat
Pyronaut is one of a group of historic vessels open to the public in the harbour. Click on a photo to view the gallery.
(Click on a photo to open a slideshow)
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AOA_Events Pyronaut is one of a number of historical vessels open to the public
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AOA_Events A boat with a single purpose
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AOA_Events Pyronaut
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AOA_Events You can’t hear it, but an enormous engine is throbbing in the background
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AOA_Events Were the handrails original?
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AOA_Events Pyronaut looking down the harbour
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AOA_Events Pyronaut approaches SS Great Britain
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AOA_Events With paying guests aboard
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AOA_Events Pyronaut approaches SS Great Britain
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AOA_Events You can smell that engine as well now!
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AOA_Events Heading back up the docks
(Click on a photo to open a slideshow)
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AOA_Events Noble Masts – an historic name in hollow mast making – operate from two barges
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AOA_Events Slightly modified barges. Mast rack welded to the gunwale in the previous photo and here is a hatch in the stern to allow long spars to be passed in and out
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AOA_Events Are they worried about them being stolen?
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AOA_Events The two barges
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AOA_Events And a hatch in the bow too
Noble Masts - historic spar makers
Noble masts make hollow spars from their barge-based workshops in the harbour. Click on a photo to view the gallery.[
Superb article on the Underfall Yard event in Bristol. It was a fabulous day out. Thank you for organising it all, and shepherding us all around the docks and restaurant safely. The harbour trip was excellent and securing the tables in the busy pub, together with the food orders and settlements was much appreciated. I have also had a look at the new videos added to the site, and found them very interesting. Many thanks, and keep up the excellent work.