The River Avon is a river in the south west of England. In its lower reaches the river is navigable and known as the Avon Navigation. Because of a number of other River Avons in England, this river is often also known as the Lower Avon or Bristol Avon.
The River Avon is the main river that flows through Bristol. Flowing in from Bath in the east it splits at St Phillip's Marsh where one half becomes the Floating Harbour and the other half drops over a wier to become the tidal 'New Cut', bypassing the city centre. In West Bristol near Ashton the harbour flows back into the river and together flow into the Avon Gorge and out to Avonmouth, into the Bristol Channel.
NAVIGATION OF THE RIVER AVON
We know that coal was being dug and stone was being quarried in the Avon Valley prior to the 17th Century. John Pearsall had set up an iron works at Willsbridge by 1712 and John Champion had interest in smelters in the valley. The Brass Mills at Saltford were as yet not built but it is likely that there were smaller premises and the new mills at this time were at the proposal stage.
The stone quarries around Bath were in production and output from the Avon Valley and Bath had to be transported. The roads were poor and not suitable for wheeled transport so everything had to be transported on the back of horses and donkeys. The greatest load that you could expect to carry in such a manner would not have exceeded 3 cwts.
Hanham Mills
At that time the river right up to Bath was tidal, but only navigable on the high tides as far as Hanham Mills. When you talk about navigable on the high tides you mean that boats could proceed along the river for a maximum of 2 hours on each tide and it was not unusual for boats to take a week to travel from Avonmouth to Hanham Mills. The river was however used quite extensively on a tidal basis and there was a coal wharf at Conham,Hanham in 1643.
Life in the Avon Valley, as indeed the whole area, was hard. The coal workings and quarry works tell of much unlawfulness, and much cider made and consumed. In those days cider would have been the cheapest drink and made from local apples or those brought down the Severn from the Wye Valley. They only needed to be crushed and the juice fermented.
In general the people were of simple taste and accepted life as it was. The coming of the Baptists and Methodists began to help them in due course. However it was an uphill struggle for very many years. In 1711 legislation under Queen Ann was obtained to make the River Avon navigable between Hanham Hills and Bath with the construction of locks and weirs at Weston, Kelston, Saltford, Swineford, Keynsham and Hanham.
The first lock to be constructed was upstream at Bath. This was in order that all the water contained by the weirs was behind the workmen employed, they themselves having to work in a minimum of water. There was obviously the tides to be considered and men would be forced to cease work for the period of the high tide but this would allow for barges to reach certain parts laden with stone which was needed for the construction of both the locks and the weirs.
Kingswood Miners
The Kingswood colliers, in their poverty, were very concerned about the river becoming navigable as by this they feared that coal would be brought more cheaply from the Midlands via the Severn and Avon to Bath than they could carry it on their overladen donkeys and horses.
It is recorded that the poverty stricken colliers disguised themselves and set out on dark nights to destroy the weirs which were under construction and it was quite easy to do this and escape undetected and unpunished. They succeeded in destroying Saltford Weir at one time and their attacks must have been such a nuisance that an Act was passed making the destruction of the locks and weirs punishable by death.
The works continued, including a cutting opposite Hanham Hills. However, at this lock, work ceased due to lack of finance and, according to Barrat’s History of Bristol no further work was undertaken for thirteen years.
He tells us that work resumed again by public subscription but it is thought that the industrialists in the Valley, thinking that they would never see this new and easy outlet for their goods up river, clubbed together and found the money to have the work completed. The waterway from Hanham to Bath was finally opened on the 27th December 1727 and the first horse drawn barge passed through the locks at Hanham Hills destined for Bath laden with lead, deal and meal.
Keynsham Lock
Keynsham Lock is one of the deepest in the river. The rise and fall of the level of the water to enable vessels to proceed is so great that a vessel entering the lock is invisible to persons on bank when the paddles of the lock have been opened and all the water released. Vessels travelling upstream would,on entering this lock, unless with experienced persons, sustain damage when the upper paddles were opened as the force of water has to be seen to be appreciated. This is one of the most dangerous locks on the river and sound advice to all users is to undo the paddles a little at a time.
The waterway, once having been opened, was used very extensively for the transport of Bath Stone, this being brought down from the quarries above Bath, loaded onto barges and then transported into Bristol. The market for this stone did not end in Bristol and much of it found its way to Gloucester, Worcester and South Wales. A great deal of Bath Stone was used in the construction of Temple Meads Station and all this must have come downstream by barge.
However the river, even in 1727, was still tidal as far up as Hanham Mills and the horse-drawn barges were still only able to operate on high tides as the Netham Weir had not, at this point in time,been built, nor indeed the Feeder Canal and Floating Harbour.
You can imagine the level of the river between tides having seen it in the new cut whilst travelling along Coronation Road, Bristol or along the other riverside highways. Bristol readers will, therefore, appreciate what is meant by a mere trickle and the river barges and trows had to be constructed with special flat bottoms so that they would sit in the middle of the channel when the tide had receded. If the bottom of the boat was not flat then it would tilt over on its side once it no longer had the water to support it.
The Feeder Canal and Floating Harbour were constructed at a much later date and Napoleonic prisoners were deployed in this task. The Floating Harbour and Netham Dam were completed in 1809. This made the whole of the Avon between Bristol and Bath navigable during any time of the day although Netham lock nowadays closes at 7.30 pm. It is, of course, still tidal, the high tides coming over the Netham Weir. This they still do today when there is any tide over the normal.
In those days there were only two methods of propulsion used for the river barges and trows, le. wind or animals. The river trows were a type of barge — all wood with a sail and rudder. The sail would have been used when in the Bristol Channel and they became horse-drawn once on the river.
It is known that horses must have been used before the river was made navigable but traffic had been so light that these presented no nuisance to the riverbank owners. Whether these riverbank owners wished to cash in on this new trade on the river or whether they genuinely objected to their land being used by horses to draw the barges will never be known but there must have been a great deal of controversy because more legislation was passed in 1807 during the reign of George III in respect of the rights of towing paths. This entitled landowners above Hanham Mills, where towing paths crossed their land, to receive an annual fee which is still legally payable to this day.
As the colliers feared they were now receiving lower prices for their produce and the obstruction of towing paths, being the only protest they could make against the barge trade was made illegal by this legislation. Their protest must have went unheeded as the towpath was eventually opened up and, at the opening ceremony, Lord Falmouth’s barge was hauled from Bath to Bristol.
This was in 1727 and to popularise river travel in the same year Princess Amelia, the second daughter of George II, together with three ladies in waiting, two lords and her private physician were rowed in three boats by water bailiffs using silver oars from Bath to a jetty at Temple Back, Bristol.
The river soon became more crowded, not only with barges and trows, but also by pleasure craft and in 1740 Samuel Tomkins claimed to be the only pleasure water man on the Bath-Bristol river. He advertised in the Gloucester Journal proudly that he now had added three new boats to his existing stock and that there was a house on each with a sash window. Two boats plied daily, the journey giving several hours of pleasurable sailing and all this comfort for the price of one shilling.
A very common misconception is to assume that the river towing path is also a public footpath. This is not always the case as reference to the local Definitive Footpath Map will show. In certain locations, notably downstream of Saltford and Swineford the towing path runs through private gardens via gates which are normally kept locked except when specifically required for navigational purposes. At other locations the towing path abruptly changes banks and in years gone by, when towing horses were in use, they were ferried across the river at these points on a large flat raft which was pulled across the river on a rope.
Great Western Railway
The greatest challenge to the river trade came with the Great Western Railway in 1840 and this travelled through the Avon Valley. Some alterations were however necessary and opposite Riverside Cottages, Hanham a great man-made shelf was constructed into the river reducing its width considerably. Upon this shelf was built the railway. Now railways require a great quantity of water and the amount required was not available at the Temple Meads location so at Conham, near the Bees’s Tea Gardens, on the Brislington side, a large pumping station was constructed with two Cornish type beam engines which each hour drew thousands of gallons of water from the river and pumped it into two large tanks or reservoirs. These beam engines were scrapped by British Rail in recent years but evidence of the pipes to the river can still be seen.
Bees’s Tea Gardens were founded in 1846 and it is thought that they originated with the coming of the Railway. It has always been a favourite stop on the river enjoyed by many thousands of persons to this very day.
Since time immemorial there has been a ferry at Crews Hole named the St Anne's Ferry and, prior to 1809, it had been worked on a tidal basis. This meant that, at low tide,the ferry was turned into a kind of floating bridge, being located in the middle of stream with wooden ramps to the bank on either side.
On the Bristol side at this point, prior to the modern-day development of St Anne's Board Mills, was a flour mill which had used the water motion of the stream to drive its machinery. This was put out of business by the building of the Netham Dam due to the decrease of water pressure with the new level of the river.
St Anne's Ferry was illegally closed in 1887 and this resulted in a lengthy legal battle in the High Courts with numerous witnesses from the vicinity being called to give evidence. A foot bridge was erected in 1957 to span the river at this point. When this was erected it was ferried up the river on two barges which had to wait for high tide before it could be raised into position with the aid of cranes.
Near the disused Ferry on the river bank stands what was William Reeves lead and Copper Smelting Works. Reeves was a Bristol merchant who had the Black Castle at Brislington built from slag from his spelter at Crews Hole about 1760. Arno's Court was built about the same time.
Riverside Cottages
The rank of cottages known as Riverside Cottages, Hanham were formerly known as Couch’s Rank and John Couch is described as a quarry owner, barge owner, land owner, landlord, brewer, and church warden at St George’s Church, Hanham Abbots. He must have been one of the large industrialists of the valley and lived in his residence to the rear of Couch’s Rank, (Riverside Cottages).
He must have had a very queer sense of humour because a Latin inscription on the side of one of the cottages, translated, means that the foolish build from sacrifice for the wise people to enjoy life. Presumably he was one of the wise people.
John Couch died in 1864 at the age of 90 and, during a great many years of his life, he kept a record of activities in the Avon Valley. He referred to this as his ‘Ledger’ and indeed it was a ledger combined with a diary in which all his financial transactions were entered together with his comments of the day to day activities in the vicinity.
The Ledger referred to such things as what stone was used for, how it was dressed, to whom it was sold, and by what method it was transported, ie. either by barge or horse and cart. However, because of the sheer weight and bulk the barge eventually moved all the stone from the Valley until proper roads were constructed and wheeled traffic took over.
Couch records the names of Hanham men who worked in the quarries, and their ages in many instances were quoted.
Expectation of Life
Despite theories about the expectation of life being not very great in those days it was common to read of men in their eighties still working. For instance March 6th, 1842 — Sunday morning at 10 o’clock William Britton of Hanham Mills killed in his 85th year. John Benjamin was killed in his quarry exactly under the road leading to the batch in Castle Farm Road Thursday February 27th, 1806 age 82 years; his wife died Sunday February 28th, 1858 age 101, and was buried at Bitton. On September 7th, 1826 Farmer Fry died at Hanham Green.
He also records that Sam Perriman stole some mutton from his dairy on March 7th, 1833. 'He carried it home but his wife would not dress it because it was stolen and he threw it at her and there is a stain now against the wall in the rank,' August 13th, 1836 - Boat racing at Hanham Mills. Two men and a boy drowned. June 10th, 1834 — At about 1.00 am in the morning Mr George Day at Hanham Lock shot Sam Ward in the right shoulder as he was breaking into his house. Ward fell down the steps and broke his right arm. September 23rd, 1840 — Bob Dundhill killed in the gravel pit aged 88 years.
Apart from the personal entries in the diary there are also his financial transactions such as to taking the Nelson (name of one of his barges) to Bath 3 horses and 1 man £1. November 7th, 1832 to taking the Nelson to Bath 2 horses and 1 man 14/—. February 3rd, 1837 to taking the barge from the bottom of the Feeder to Doctor Foxes, Brislington, laden with soil 3 horses and 1 man 10/—.
With a final reference to Couch; a rate was made necessary for the relief of the poor in the hamlet of Hanham in the Parish of Bitton by the consent of the Chapel Warden. This levied a rate on the principal inhabitants of the said hamlet at 4/6 in the pound and was dated the 23rd July, 1807. It bears the name of the authority of John Couch, Chapel Warden, Samuel Whittuck, Squire of Hanham Hall and George Eyton who was probably Clerk of the Parochial Council and the rate fell on 155 properties.
Holiday Diary 1836
Even in those days the Avon Valley must have been an attractive place to live and there is a quotation from a holiday diary of a Mr T Clark of Wellington, Salop dated 26th.June, 1836:—
'I took a riverside walk from Bristol to Hanham Mills. Crews Hole was flat and unprofitable but from the turn of the river at this place all was new and beautiful. The banks of the river assuming a bolder and loftier aspect and, being clothed with a richness of verdew, contrasted strongly with the tameness of the first part of my walk. The scenery was charming and diversified with its rocky and richly wooded banks. Although I expected a very delightful walk the scenery of the river far surpassed my utmost expectations, presenting at every turn fresh combinations of the beautiful and the grand.'
And then the decline of the Avon Valley commenced. The coal fields became extinct and no coal was transported by the local railway from Londonderry Wharf after 1904. Hanham Pit continued until 1926 and the quarries closed one by one with the coming of cement and man-made bricks. However some quarries were in working order until the early thirties.
Working Barges
The last working barges to use the Avon above Netham were those of St Anne's Board Mills. They were in a string and called buttys. They had no engines and were towed up from the docks laden with bales of paper by a tug. Butlers also ran four barges called the Isobel, the Darby, the Jolly and the coasting barge Carbolate. In recent years the Isobel and the Darby ran to the Bath Gas Works daily, Monday to Friday, going upstream approximately at 6.00 am in the morning and returning past Conham at approximately 4.00 pm. This activity ceased in the early sixties. The Jolly has been restored and is a habitable vessel.
So what about the future of the Avon Valley?
In 1949 Kingswood Urban District Council delegates at the Urban Districts Council Association Bournemouth Conference listened to Mr Lewis Sillian M.P. speaking on the National Parks. They returned full of hopes intending to make something. of the Avon Valley. This was in due course opened by Mr Wedgewood Benn M.P. on 13th.April 1957.
The idea of making the Avon Valley into a Park and Recreation Area has been furthered by the present Kingswood District Council and, in theory. the ideas proposed for the river and valley are very good in some respects. It is however sad that man is interfering with nature so much in the valley which has looked after itself for many centuries.
