Bristol floating harbour

[Mike Hurley]

You can see the SS Great Britain, the Suspension Bridge and the Matthew replica all in one place. The city centre is a dump, most of it beyond Hanham is the same. Stop in Bath and have a better time in a nicer place. Unless you are accessing the channel, Bristol is best bypassed in my opinion, others will vary.

 Kettle on waiting for the flak.

[rusty69]

There was a bit on TV today about a couple skinny dippin in the harbour during some festival.The harbour master gave them a stiff talking to.

Edited February 23, 2018 by rusty69

[ditchcrawler]

4 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

You can see the SS Great Britain, the Suspension Bridge and the Matthew replica all in one place. The city centre is a dump, most of it beyond Hanham is the same. Stop in Bath and have a better time in a nicer place. Unless you are accessing the channel, Bristol is best bypassed in my opinion, others will vary.

 Kettle on waiting for the flak.

I preferred my stop in Bath over Bristol

 

[Mike Hurley]

Just now, ditchcrawler said:

I preferred my stop in Bath over Bristol

 

Exactly, i lived in Bristol for over 40 years, a 1 week visit twice a year is more than enough for me. Bath is a nice place, lots too see and do.

6 minutes ago, rusty69 said:

There was a bit on TV today about a couple skinny dippin in the harbour during some festival.The harbour master gave them a stiff talking to.

Both at the same time?

[mrsmelly]

1 hour ago, Murflynn said:

Many journalists claim that Brigstow* Bristol is the best city in England.  Please perpetuate the myth (?) so that my house value continues to spiral upwards. 

 

* there several alternative spellings, based on phonetics, including the supposed local difficulty of pronouncing 'ow' as in 'oh', without introducing an 'l' as in 'Bristle'.

one of my daughters has a bungalow in Bristol she had valued last week at 400k for a bloomin bungalow!! ridiculous god only knows where her 3 kids will get money from to rent/buy these property prices do no good whatsoever for the future. 

[rusty69]

3 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

 

Both at the same time?

Yeah, they were swimming off what looked like a ships lifeboat

[Mike Hurley]

13 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

one of my daughters has a bungalow in Bristol she had valued last week at 400k for a bloomin bungalow!! ridiculous god only knows where her 3 kids will get money from to rent/buy these property prices do no good whatsoever for the future. 

Not surprised at that, which part of Bristol may i ask? When you approach Saltford marina, just beyond the weir there is a very good Indian restaurant on the right, used to be a pub, good food by all accounts, if you like Indian that is.

Edited February 23, 2018 by Mike Hurley

[mrsmelly]

9 minutes ago, Mike Hurley said:

Not surprised at that, which part of Bristol may i ask?

Hanham!! not even Clifton or owt!!

[Mike Hurley]

2 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Hanham!! not even Clifton or owt!!

Not a bad place Hanham, down the back lanes to the Chequers pub.

 

[mrsmelly]

1 minute ago, Mike Hurley said:

Not a bad place Hanham, down the back lanes to the Chequers pub.

 

I dont drink 

[Alan de Enfield]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

There was a bit on TV today about a couple skinny dippin in the harbour during some festival.The harbour master was stiff whilst he gave them a talking to.

 

[dmr]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

There was a bit on TV today about a couple skinny dippin in the harbour during some festival.The harbour master gave them a stiff talking to.

There is a riverside restaurant/venue just above the turn into the feeder canal. Last year my daughter got banned for life for swimming in the river from there and I believe (well hope) that she was wearing a swimming costume.

................Dave

[mrsmelly]

11 minutes ago, dmr said:

There is a riverside restaurant/venue just above the turn into the feeder canal. Last year my daughter got banned for life for swimming in the river from there and I believe (well hope) that she was wearing a swimming costume.

................Dave

I am sure your kids like all mine  have never done any wrong eh 

[rusty69]

1 hour ago, rusty69 said:

Yeah, they were swimming off what looked like a ships lifeboat

Think it was called sea city. Available on iplayer. 

[Laurie Booth]

5 hours ago, Mike Hurley said:

Not surprised at that, which part of Bristol may i ask? When you approach Saltford marina, just beyond the weir there is a very good Indian restaurant on the right, used to be a pub, good food by all accounts, if you like Indian that is.

Where in Saltford is this Indian Resturant ?

[Amber34]

We spent a week in and around Bristol in august last year, after coming down from Sharpness. Himself wandered up to the harbourmasters office when we first arrived but found it unoccupied or closed (can't quite recall details). After a couple of days we went out to the old lock and weir, picked up our visitor then returned to Bristol.

We saw we should pay at the lock (Hanham?), but this was unmanned every time we passed through it. Both visits there we moored opposite the SS GB and weren't bothered by anyone.

[pete harrison]

On 23/02/2018 at 19:19, Mike Hurley said:

Exactly, i lived in Bristol for over 40 years, a 1 week visit twice a year is more than enough for me. Bath is a nice place, lots too see and do.

Clearly this will always be subjective.

I lived in Bristol (Almondsbury then Bradley Stoke then Almondsbury) for 23 years and thought it was a really nice place to be, possibly influenced by my first 22 years where I lived in Birmingham (Erdington then on a boat in Ladywood). All five of my sons had the opportunity of fantastic educations (QEH, Bristol Cathedral School and St. Ursula's) and regional employment percentage was high, hence property prices being strong. Like many places the waterfront has lost its character in recent years as it has been taken over with 'yuppy' flats, but at least there are a pair of exGrand Union Canal Carrying Company Ltd. boats to add a welcome distraction from modernity.

I always thought that Bath was an over hyped dump and went there as little as possible, and what is the Roman Baths all about - always looked like a stagnant swimming pool to me !!!

[pete harrison]

On 23/02/2018 at 19:22, mrsmelly said:

one of my daughters has a bungalow in Bristol she had valued last week at 400k for a bloomin bungalow!! ridiculous god only knows where her 3 kids will get money from to rent/buy these property prices do no good whatsoever for the future. 

Two of my sons were still Bristol based until recently, but in order to make their way up the property ladder they have both moved to Gloucester.

I have just finished paying for my ex-wife's house in Almondsbury, Bristol which has more or less doubled in value over the last two years. My house in the grim north is worth the same as when I bought it 10 years ago. Don't you just love the north / south divide  

[mrsmelly]

Just now, pete harrison said:

Two of my sons were still Bristol based until recently, but in order to make their way up the property ladder they have both moved to Gloucester.

I have just finished paying for my ex-wife's house in Almondsbury, Bristol which has more or less doubled in value over the last two years. My house in the grim north is worth the same as when I bought it 10 years ago. Don't you just love the north / south divide  

Actualy though the divide is bad the fact that property in the north is still affordable for some if not all people is a good thing. Property should be for living in and not for investment as its made it unavailable to many. Bristol is a prime example of how bad things are getting. Some lovely villages in North Yorkshire still affordable but probably not for long 

[pete harrison]

15 minutes ago, mrsmelly said:

Actualy though the divide is bad the fact that property in the north is still affordable for some if not all people is a good thing. Property should be for living in and not for investment as its made it unavailable to many. Bristol is a prime example of how bad things are getting. Some lovely villages in North Yorkshire still affordable but probably not for long 

Quite, I feel fortunate that I am no longer a slave to my house - something I was talking to my lads at work about last night. At the same time I am a little disturbed that I will never be able to afford to move closer to my sons in the south when I retire 

[Murflynn]

4 hours ago, pete harrison said:

All five of my sons had the opportunity of fantastic educations (QEH, Bristol Cathedral School and St. Ursula's) and regional employment percentage was high, hence property prices being strong. Like many places the waterfront has lost its character in recent years as it has been taken over with 'yuppy' flats, but at least there are a pair of exGrand Union Canal Carrying Company Ltd. boats to add a welcome distraction from modernity.

I always thought that Bath was an over hyped dump and went there as little as possible, and what is the Roman Baths all about - always looked like a stagnant swimming pool to me !!!

snap!    my son was at QEH from '88 to '95.

 

............ and I concur about Bath.

[Murflynn]

7 hours ago, Amber34 said:

We spent a week in and around Bristol in august last year, after coming down from Sharpness. Himself wandered up to the harbourmasters office when we first arrived but found it unoccupied or closed (can't quite recall details). After a couple of days we went out to the old lock and weir, picked up our visitor then returned to Bristol.

We saw we should pay at the lock (Hanham?), but this was unmanned every time we passed through it. Both visits there we moored opposite the SS GB and weren't bothered by anyone.

blimey, you were lucky......  in my experience the office is manned 6 days a week with at least 2 clerks in the public bit, and there is a regular patrol boat from the Cumberland Basin through the city to the Feeder Canal. 

You are supposed to stop at Netham Lock at the east end of the Feeder Canal (Hanham is the first C&RT lock on the river going east).  I never stopped there because I had a Bristol Harbour navigation licence, and was never checked. 

[pete harrison]

13 minutes ago, Murflynn said:

snap!    my son was at QEH from '88 to '95.

 

............ and I concur about Bath.

My eldest son and youngest son both went to QEH, with the eldest starting there in 1996 or 1997.

I have only boated into Bristol's Floating Harbour once, and this was in 1996 for the Festival Of The Sea. We had loaded a little stainless steel at Limpley Stoke and following it being unloaded using the steam crane at the Industrial Museum this was made into sculptures during the event. Certainly a surreal experience to be on a pair of narrow boats passing tall ships with cannons going off     

[Rob-M]

11 minutes ago, pete harrison said:

My eldest son and youngest son both went to QEH, with the eldest starting there in 1996 or 1997.

I have only boated into Bristol's Floating Harbour once, and this was in 1996 for the Festival Of The Sea. We had loaded a little stainless steel at Limpley Stoke and following it being unloaded using the steam crane at the Industrial Museum this was made into sculptures during the event. Certainly a surreal experience to be on a pair of narrow boats passing tall ships with cannons going off     

Was that the year Glyn Phillips took his boat...?

[pete harrison]

8 minutes ago, Rob-M said:

Was that the year Glyn Phillips took his boat...?

I do not recall AQUARIUS being there, and it does not feature amongst my photographs - although I did not photograph every boat as I was a bit busy