Tagged: thoroughfare
A Swing of the Plimsoll Bridge
24 Apr 2022
I was originally going to head over to the Ashton area to see if I'd missed any bits around the football stadium—and also to grab some lunch from the Tobacco Factory Market—but in the end I got a little distracted by having accidentally chosen exactly the right time to see the Plimsoll Bridge swing on one of the first busy days of Spring, where a lot of pleasure trips tend to head out down the Avon (and possibly the New Cut) from Hotwells.
In the end I mostly snapped that, and just a couple of photos from the Ashton area where I grabbed some lunch but didn't do any new exploring.
My first hint that there might be something interesting to look at was that the lock gates that I was planning on walking over were open rather than closed. Then I spotted the pleasure boat in the lock, just behind the descending steps from the footbridge there.
Can't spot any music or a cafe in this photo? I don't blame you. But, if you look mid-left, you'll see a circular concrete plinth where the cafe used to stand near the children's playground in the heyday of the Cumberland Basin. And behind it is what caught my ear as I was crossing the lock gates—a saxophonist is practising his scales.
I've come across practising musicians in this area before. Presumably they've come away from home to avoid annoying the neighbours (or the rest of the family!) The traffic noise covers even unmuted brass quite well—by the time I was at the other end of the footbridge, on the far side of the flyover, I could barely hear him.
Ticking Off a Pocket of Paths in Leigh Woods
03 Jun 2022
I managed to go for a wander a while ago that was meant to finish off a little tangle of paths in Leigh Woods, or at the very least finish off my wandering of the Purple Path there. And I managed to miss doing either of those things through some kind of navigational incompetence.
Today I woke up with a bit of a headache, feeling a bit knackered as soon as I dragged myself out of bed, but at least with the energy to realise that I'd be better off (a) going for a walk in what looked likely to be the last of the Jubilee weekend sunshine than (b) moping around the flat until it started raining, at which point I could mope more thoroughly.
I had a look at my map, considered going to Ashton Court, but remembered that there was a music festival there today, and instead found these little leftovers of Leigh Woods and decided to have one more try at walking them.
At this point I'd just walked up the steep bit of Rownham Hill and was already too hot and a bit knackered. Still, at least it's levelling out.
Time to exit Ashton Court and head for my main target at Leigh Woods.
Right, back to Clifton Village for a coffee and some lunch to take home. I see the one way system—brought in as a social distancing measure—is still in place.
A Quick Swing Past Ashton Court
05 Jun 2022
Another day not dissimilar to my last wander: I'm feeling a bit tired and rather than just moping around the house I thought I'd find some tiny bit of somewhere that I'd not yet walked and get outdoors. This time I headed for the Tobacco Factory Market in Bedminster, as I often do, but went the long way around via Ashton Court Mansion as I knew there were some footpaths and a small section of road I'd not ticked off up there. Finishing all the Ashton Court footpaths will be quite a long job, but you've got to start somewhere...
I did feel rather better by the time I got home, and, pretty much astoundingly given the weather forecast, managed to avoid the rain completely.
Fairly typical Bristol scene here, as the traffic is held up for a bridge swing caused by a replica of a 15th century caravel.
I'd normally walk over those open lock gates she's just sailed through, but it's easy enough to walk down to the gates at the river end.
Ah, so it's the triathlon next weekend, then. The swimming bit is done in the Cumberland Basin, so I expect they'll be draining it and re-filling it with fresher water towards the end of the week. I wouldn't fancy it, even in a wetsuit.
Ah, so not only is it the Bristol Triathlon next weekend, but it's also the UWE degree show. That's usually worth a look-see. Mind you, it's also Clifton Open Gardens, so maybe I'll see what the weather's like before I make a choice. UWE's Bower Ashton campus can be absolutely sweltering on a warm day, from what I remember, so I might be better off sipping Pimms in a garden if it's too sunny.
I like the sound of "Flax Bourton". I keep on meaning to dust off my bike; maybe a trip along there would be an interesting day trip. Might want to make sure I can still ride comfortably before I try a ten-mile round trip, though...
I've been pretty awful at reading so far this year, apparently averaging about one book per month. That's a far cry from 2019, say, where I got through 41 books in the year. Today's wander was prompted by my rubbish reading, as I needed to go hand back some books to the library, because I'd managed to renew them so many times that I hit the limit on renewals. Oops. Several of them were still unread.
So, off to the Central Library for me, tail between my legs. On the way there I did my best to recreate a historical photo of Dowry Square; while I was in the area I walked under the adjacent Norman arch and poked around behind the Cathedral, and I also had a little diversion to the city centre and came back along the south side of the river, hitting some trouble with the lock gates as I finally crossed the harbour back towards home.
I'm in the habit of going over to the Tobacco Factory Market on a Sunday. I think I've walked all the routes around that way, but as a Plimsoll Bridge swing let me cross the road to the far side of Brunel Way on my return journey and I took a couple of photos of the brownfield development at the old Ashton Gate Depot site I thought I'd call it a Wander and pop some photos up.
But, of course, no Metrobuses, as they don't do anything as useful as running on a Sunday.
Ah, but it seems like the bridge is closing, which might make it nice and safe to cross over and have more of a look from the other side. First, though, we'll nip down and have a look at what's causing the swing.
Now, what's actually meant to happen at this point is that all the traffic follows the giant flashing ALL TRAFFIC sign pointing to the exit ramp on the left. Then they go down the ramp, along a short stretch of road, cross the harbour at Merchants Road bridge (officially Junction Swing Bridge, in fact), join the Hotwell Road and continue on their merry way, without any cause for delay.
This never actually seems to happen, and a queue just forms here. Today this particularly annoyed the driver of a Waitrose van, presumably late for a delivery and stuck behind what he clearly thought were a line of idiots that he hooted angrily at for quite some time, to as much effect as you'd imagine.
I walked back to the point I'd spotted all this activity from the far side of the road. This is the old tile merchant/concrete works/Ashton Gate Railway Depot/Bristol International Exhibition site. I imagine it was plenty of other things along the way, too. Here's an earlier snap with a bad photo from the far side of the site, but some detail on what the site was/will be along with a link to planning documents.
I'm currently toying with the idea of a little mini-website that takes a digitised and vectorised version of the Bristol International Exhibition plan (from 1914) and superimposes it on the same area today. It'd be interesting to see exactly where things were. My best guess from eyeballing it at the moment is that in 1914, this view would be looking towards the International Pavilion, Concert Hall and Art Gallery areas of the Exhibition, and we'd be standing on the train tracks that used to head for Ashton Avenue Bridge, which back then would have been a double-decker road and rail swing bridge, with the trains on the ground level deck, the road on the top deck, and a high-level swing control room above it all. Quite some feat of engineering.
I wonder how many different things this patch of land has been over the years? I imagine it was one of the choice "brownfield" sites for some new flats down here. It's certainly doing its best to look very "brownfield" today!
They really couldn't make it much clearer that drivers are meant to nip off down the off ramp up ahead and take Junction Swing Bridge instead. But if anyone ever does I've not seen it. I don't think I've ever been caught in the queue here as a driver, but then I don't do much driving.
Nipping Up the Zig Zag to the Shops
19 Aug 2023
It's been a long while since I did one of these walks.
I'm thinking of finishing up the project by walking one or two last bits of road, thus being able to declare with all honesty that I've done my best to walk every public road within my mile (and quite a few alleyways besides.) As a prelude, and just because I felt like it, I decided to drag out the camera and GPS on this little wander to the local shops.
I may not personally be a fan of evangelical Christianity, but at least they keep the place looking nice. It's still very tidy since the recent renovation, installaltion of solar panels on the roof and repainting of the HOPE CHAPEL sign.
I would absolutely love to have lived in this area before World War II, before the widening of the road knocked down so many interesting things and replaced them with a few busy lanes of traffic, before the tramways were bombed into oblivion, and while you could still wander down to these moorings and catch a White Funnel boat out to Ilfracombe, or at least wander down to Hotwells Station and catch a steam train out to Shirehampton, Sea Mills or Avonmouth. Pre-1934 I could even have skipped the arduous walk up the Zig Zag and taken the 40-second ride up the funicular railway to Clifton Village...
I did take a couple of other pictures of zigs and zags in the Zig Zag, but they didn't turn out too well; possibly my hands were shaking too much from the exertion of climbing this violently steep old track.