Bathurst Basin

Coordinates: 51°26′49″N 2°35′41″W / 51.4469°N 2.5948°W

Lightship in Bathurst Basin

Bathurst Basin

Bathurst Basin is a small triangular basin adjoining the main harbour of the city of Bristol, England. The basin gets its name from Charles Bathurst, who was an MP in Bristol in the early 19th century.

The basin was built on an area of an old mill pond, Trin Mills also known as Treen / Trimm / Trim Mills. The pond lost its water supply from the River Malago as the New Cut was created. At one time it formed a connection, through two sets of locks, between the Floating Harbour and the tidal River Avon in the New Cut. The connection enabled smaller vessels to bypass the main entrance locks in Cumberland Basin. The area used to be an industrial dock with warehouses and numerous shipyards at the adjoining Wapping Shipyard and Docks, including Hilhouse, William Scott & Sons and William Patterson . Now there is a small marina, with residential quayside properties.

The Bristol Harbour Railway connected to the main line system at Temple Meads, via a swing bridge over the Northern entrance dock to the basin and a tunnel beneath St Mary Redcliffe. The tunnel still exists, but is now blocked, and the original railway swing bridge has been replaced with a swing footbridge. This bridge is manually swung by a hydraulic pump action.

Bristol General Hospital is located on the Eastern quay of the basin. When constructed in 1859, the hospital was built with basement warehouse space to defray its operating costs.^[1] The Southern quay has never had any substantial buildings on it and for many years was used by Holms Sand & Gravel Co. as a depot for building materials, brought in by boat and offloaded into road vehicles. A travelling crane on an overhead gantry was used to handle these.^[1][2]

The lock to the New Cut was blocked at the beginning of World War II to ensure that in case of damage by bombing, the waters of the Floating Harbour could not drain into the river.^[1] It was shut permanently in 1952.

The basin is the home for Cabot Cruising Club who own the lightship John Sebastian, which was commissioned in 1886. It was acquired by the club in 1954 and opened as its headquarters a few years later in 1959. Facilities at the basin include a toilet and shower block, a water tap and refuse and chemical toilet disposal points.

Also in the surroundings of the basin are the Ostrich and Louisiana (originally the Bathurst Hotel) pubs.

References

1. Lewis, Brian. Hotwells and the City Docks. Bygone Bristol. pp. 44–45. ISBN 1-899388-28-1.
2. Fray Bentos (3 August 1975). "Death rattle of Bristol's port: Sand boat in Bathurst Basin" (photograph). 1970s photographs of lost Bristol.

Location within Bristol harbour

1. Prince's Wharf, including M Shed, Pyronaut and Mayflower adjoining Prince Street Bridge
2. Dry docks: SS Great Britain, the Matthew
3. St Augustine's Reach, Pero's Bridge
4. Bathurst Basin
5. Queen Square
6. Bristol Temple Meads railway station
7. Castle Park
8. Redcliffe Quay and Redcliffe Caves
9. Baltic Wharf marina
10. Cumberland Basin & Brunel Locks
11. The New Cut
12. Netham Lock, entrance to the Feeder Canal
13. Totterdown Basin
14. Temple Quay
15. The Centre
16. Canons Marsh, including Millennium Square and At-Bristol
17. Underfall Yard
18. Bristol Bridge

External links

• Bristol Floating Harbour heritage trail