How BRISTOL'S RIVERS shaped the city + vice versa: a brief summary of the last half a million years

[@MegaCj74]

A fascinating history lesson with a dead-pan and dry humoured delivery that is most enjoyable. Please keep them coming!

[@artemisbjj]

Brilliant, I've been waiting for your second vid, as the first one was such an excellent mini doc on local Bristol history. This one is great too! I love your channel. 😍

[@PedestrianDiversions]

Thanks, I really appreciate the positive energy!

[@vinawaldren6888]

Awesome video. Great pics! 👍😁

[@davidsimms6609]

Enjoyed this video.

[@trainandbikefan]

I once attended a business course where participants were told to read through a document before answering the accompanying questionaire..... around a dozen of us including myself, bearing in mind the short time period allowed, started to answer as we went along. One guy did however read to the last line which read "ignore all previous questions" I should have learned my lesson back then!! Thanks again for your work - I didn't even know about the Somerset 5 walls prior to your item although my brother-in-law used to play the game.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

heh, funny story but I dont think I can reasonably demand everyone reads every comment before commenting! sorry again and thanks for commenting

[@andrewrobinson2565]

Excellent. About 10 years ago we flew to Bristol from Béziers in France and back for 2€ each. We have happy memories of Fish and Chips behind the theatre, a Chinese and an Indian meal in one weekend, and following a walk around the city centre supplied online by the Tourist Office on one phone sharing a set of headphones romantically (no choice!). SS Great Something and home. Thanks 👍👍+1.

[@darrenbaker3225]

Great video, mate! Cheers!

[@eggmarmalade]

Been working my way through your videos as I pack up our house in Southampton in prep to move to Knowle. Really interesting, really enjoying it - thank you!

[@hughtierneytierney3585]

That was very informative indeed. I never could make sense of the city's river system when I was living there. Now, many years later, thanks to this film, I've gained some understanding.

[@tomd5678]

Excellent

[@delilahw.1094]

excellent video! very informative! many thanks for making it and for listing all your sources! At last, I found pictures and maps of how the rivers were diverted! I'm not native to Bristol but I love this city and I've been discovering its fascinating history for a while now. This video turned out to be so helpful with a lot of my questions! Looking forward to watching more of your videos! cheers!

[@lordzao1]

I've also been trying to explore Bristol's rivers in this lockdown and your video is a ltieral godsend. Extremely well put together, thank you very much

[@fuzzy3210]

This is the second video of yours I've watched. Another great work. Really interesting history, and I like your maps!

[@24severn]

Love this so much ❤

[@retroactivejealousy-worldl1805]

Love your channel. I used to live not too far away from Bristol. Have subscribed :-)

[@Alan_UK]

Excellent research and graphically well presented. Just discovered your channel and will view some of your previous ones. Keep up the work :)

[@simonuden8450]

An excellent piece of work. I'm glad you included the diversion of the Frome under Princes Street and the Floating Harbour, although it hadn't occurred to me that the reason was due to pollution - I had thought it was merely to decrease the through flow, thereby decreasing the amount of silt brought into the dock area.

[@jackmartinleith]

Excellent research, video making and narration. The only items you missed, and I'm sure you did so deliberately, are Fosse Way and Castle Green culverts linking the underground Frome to the Floating Harbour by Castle Park ferry stop. The Environment Agency has access to Fosse Way culvert via an inspection cover behind the green gates opposite the point where Merchant Street joins Broad Weir. A couple of lovely EA blokes once lifted the cover so I could have a shufti.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

thanks Jack, glad you liked it. I think you flatter me a tad in saying that was a deliberate ommission(!); I was going to reply with "actually I didn't come across culverts of those names in my research", but I just googled fosse way culvert and the second result was purple, the ukcaving report I cited, so I totally had seen those names actually. Anyway that page says "the Fosseway culvert is probably the route of the original castle moat" and I think I did mention (part of) the moat still exists underground though perhaps didn't make clear it was an active, modernised piece of culvert infrastructure. The castle green one, though, is that 'all new'? I think I just overlooked that one! cheers for the addition

[@nickhowes5348]

Fosse Culvert was dug around 1905, Castle Green culvert dug 1886, both deep through red sandstone rock, both were storm water relief tunnels for Broadweir.

[@baz5973]

Very well presented and have to admit I enjoyed your sense of humour. Now finding out about Bristol after living here for 50 years. (bit slow.) Subscribed.

[@gazwren8252]

Brilliant!!!👍👏👏👏

[@nortonrobey4021]

fantastic!

[@SmashmanVideos]

Very informative and answers many questions that I didn't even realise that I had about my (old) walk to work! Thanks!

[@MrJohnQCitizen]

Ditto!

[@peter_smyth]

Great video, but you missed an opportunity to mention 1960s(?) plans to fill in the harbour to make room for cars. This didn't happen (evidently), but we did get the Brunel Way road system around the Cumberland Basin.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

Good point Pete! Was getting a bit long so I focused on things that happened over things that might've but didn't, but I definitely intended to at least give that a throwaway mention...but forgot! I actually have "Bristol vs Roads" jotted down as a future potential topic (this, Queen Sq, Totterdown etc) so perhaps I can come back to it

[@PedestrianDiversions]

hi Pete, I ended up talking a bit about those plans, and the Cumberland basin road schemes, in this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/haCbZqJ3etuZb5o

[@darrengilbert4182]

Very interesting video and explaination of the Bristol's development around the rivers. I've been studying the older maps for a few weeks now, and this has gelled it all together - especially the Portwall Lane part of the moat. Thank you so much.

[@hymek7017]

Thanks for this most interesting video. I do have a quick question..... At 09:40 during the shot of St Peter's church, the harbour wall shows two openings near the location of the new S shaped pedestrian bridge. Any idea what these openings are for?

[@PedestrianDiversions]

Good question. Don't know

[@petemitchell9111]

I grew up in and around Bristol and love the place but your videos have really expanded my appreciation - do please keep them coming. Used to fish for sticklebacks in the Frome and always wondered where it went when it hit the town. Just one thing - do people really call it the Avon with the stress on the first syllable now? When I was young that was reserved for the cosmetics - Ding dong Avon Calling!

[@PedestrianDiversions]

I've always pronounced it that way but I'm neither born nor raised in the local area, so to be honest, I would have heard it used for the cosmetics more than anything else!

[@enbyennui]

Great & interesting video as always. While I would certainly agree that the harbour doesn't feel like a _river_ specifically it certainly serves its purpose as a central, aquatic navigational point (or, I suppose, line) for the city. At the least, while in Edinburgh, I certainly found the lack of water in the city both noticeable and unpleasant. Even if obviously a harvour rather than a river, its function cognitively - as a waymarker & cultural point of interest - is identical to that of a natural river.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

very true, good point. I also find cities without rivers kind of weird, having always lived in (or near) ones with rivers... never really noticed it in Edinburgh though because I've only ever been there for the festival

[@ianhalsall-fox]

It's remarkable to think that if you stand on the beach at Clevedon, at low tide, you will be in the County of Bristol and not Somerset!

[@martinhowe1422]

A fantastically enjoyable and concise video. Thank you. As a regular visitor to Bristol, I have previously investigated the floating harbour in some detail. However, I am unable to find any mention regarding the eastern end of the new cut, specifically, the section where the north bound flow of the Avon was dammed off where Brock's bridge is currently sited. At the time, this must have been a major undertaking, but all comments about the new cut always refer to the western end. And what was the time difference between the Avon being dammed off and the feeder canal returning a flow to the original river. Do you have any further detail about this undertaking? Finally, regarding the pronounciation of the Avon. The welsh (pre-Roman) name for a river is 'Afon'. Presumably when the Romans arrived and asked the local Celts what the name of the river was, the answer provided - Afon - became the river's name. So in effect the River Avon is actually River River. This also accounts for why England has so many Avon rivers. So it provides a clear pointer to the original pronounciation which is A-Fon. Therefore it would appear that the company the make-up lady at your front door is representing has the same name as the River.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

No I don't have much more detail although I share your curiosity. The most detailed source I have is 'Bristol's Floating Harbour: The First 200 Years' by Malpass & King. It says water was first let into the New Cut in Jan 1809. Intuitively it seems like they would have to 'flip the switch' within a single day or even tide cycle, to prevent everything from flooding, so the feeder canal and dam at the western end etc must have all been lined up to completion at the same time, but I don't know if that was really the case; perhaps it was much more complex, I'm no engineer. I do find it a bit baffling at how little record there seems to be of such a huge piece of engineering... spanning years, diverting an entire river and rewriting the map of a major city yet there seems no real answer to such basic questions as how that switch at the Brock's Bridge area was done. The book does reference a 1969 paper by Buchanan in the Bristol & Gloucs Archaeological Society as 'the best account' of the construction process, but I haven't read it / can't readily find it online. It also references Hadfield & Skempton's 1979 biography of Jessop which I also haven't read, so may or may not contain useful detail.

[@BadMouse101]

One little tip. Give after effects a go. Even if its just making small little lines grow or shrink it'll massively improve the quality of your graphics. Pirate it if necessary its very straight forward.

[@sueross2850]

Great podcast. I sort of knew this stuff as separate bits of information, but enjoyed seeing them put together. Do you think French prisoners of war dug the New Cut, as I've heard?

[@nickhowes5348]

No, english and irish navvies only

[@dansheppard2965]

Ok, I admit I clicked on this because in my haste I thought it said Bristol Rovers, but a fascinating video nevertheless!

[@KavanaghGTR]

Has the popular pronunciation of 'Avon' changed to suit the 'Avon Calling' advert of many years ago? I was born there and it always used to be pronounced as 'Aven'.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

no I'm just an idiot

[@KavanaghGTR]

@@PedestrianDiversions I'm sorry to hear that, but I daresay you are being facetious. Back in my day (40 years ago) the Avon was pronounced as previously mentioned, Cabot was pronounced Cab-oh, and Sea Mills was pronounced with the emphasis on the second word not the first. I've not lived there for a long time so my pronunciation might well be out of date.

[@PedestrianDiversions]

@@KavanaghGTR facetious yes. but I've had a few other comments saying the same thing about Avon so basically I just said it wrong. Cabot, being from Italian not French, I would think should have a t, but I assumed it was Cab-oh when I first got here and didnt know that. interesting to hear it used to be Cab-oh.

[@RedRodders]

What exactly is a Floating Harbour?

[@PedestrianDiversions]

harbour as in harbour and floating in that the water level stays at high tide levels instead of going up and down. it is a pretty weird and un-self-explanatory name, I agree

[@jeremypnet]

When I first heard the term, I thought it meant only the bit made by diverting the Frome and there used to be a structure that literally floated.

[@geoffryllewellyn7693]

At first glance I thought it read, Bristol ROVERS ,shaped the city ! Yeh, that'll be right ! :0)

[@americanidiot1088]

I love your content. Can i say that?

[@PedestrianDiversions]

I'm not going to stop you

[@jccjjccj3305]

Bathurst basin should be renamed Hannah Moore basin

[@jeremypnet]

Nah. Maybe Hannah More, since she lived in Bristol. I would go with something more imaginative like Wash Basin. Or maybe Hannah More Buffalo, because, looking at the water, I’d say you can’t wash your hands in it.

[@SWRural-fk2ub]

Thanks very much. Just one curious quibble. If you live in Bristol why do you refer to the Avon as though it was an American cosmetic product? Nobody except incomers would refer to it other than as 'Av'n' - whether educated Bristolian, or otherwise.

[@bobhandford8445]

Just being picky but it is pronounced AV-UN. AV-ON is a perfume company!

[@trainandbikefan]

I do enjoy your entertaining (Basil Fawltyesque?) short and informative films but feel it worth correcting you on the pronunciation of ''avon' and 'afon' the first being the English river name NOT the perfume company... i.e. phonetically ay-vUn not ay-vOn.... a Welsh person would similarly be irritated by the wrong sound in their native tongue... i.e. aFon where the F is sounded as an English V = more towards aVVon…... Thanks for reading....and do keep up the otherwise good work 8¬))))

[@PedestrianDiversions]

I got the message the first three or four times this was pointed out

[@PedestrianDiversions]

sorry to be rude...bad day...file it under fawltyesque perhaps