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Bristol Packet | |
Industry | Boat trips and excursions |
Founded | Bristol, England (1973) |
Headquarters | Wapping Wharf, Bristol BS1 6UN |
Website | bristolpacket |
Bristol Packet Boat Trips is a limited company [1] offering public and charter excursions in Bristol Harbour and on the River Avon. The company has four boats: the river launch Tower Belle , narrowboat Redshank, glass-topped Bagheera and locally built Flower of Bristol. The company also has an interest in Bristol Hydrogen Boats which has commissioned and built a hydrogen powered ferry boat.
The Bristol Packet was founded in 1973 by Nick and Corrina Gray. [2] [3] At that time there were no passenger boats operating in the city docks or on the river Avon, the last services had been offered by the Kingstonian in the 1960s. The docks were semi-derelict and there were few visitors. Trips were initially offered around the docks on the narrowboat Redshank, which along with her accompanying butty Greenshank, had been brought from the Midlands by the Grays. Nick offered "interesting, anecdotal commentaries which added some depth and interest to the trips", according to the Bristol Post . [3]
In 1976 the river launch Tower Belle was brought to Bristol enabling trips upstream to Hanham and downstream to the Avon Gorge. Avon Gorge trips had not been available to the public since the demise of P & A Campbells in the 1970s. [4] The Grays eventually sold the company in 1980. [3] Tickets for boat trips were sold from a 1910 showman's wagon at Wapping Wharf. [2]
In 1995, The Bristol Packet commenced operations on the Flower of Bristol, enabling a further extension of the evening charter business. The most recent addition, in 2002, to the company's fleet was Amsterdam built sightseeing boat Bagheera. [5]
Redshank is a traditional English narrowboat, built in 1936 by W. J. Yarwood & Sons in Northwich, Cheshire. The original name was Reading and she was operated by the Grand Union Canal Carrying Company. [6] In the 1950s, she was acquired by the Willow Wren Canal Carrying Company, who renamed her as Redshank. [7] [8]
Tower Belle started life as a river launch named the Wincomblee on the Tyne, built in 1920 by Armstrong Whitworth. After the Second World War, she worked on the Thames, before she was brought to Bristol in 1976. [9]
Flower of Bristol was built by Abels Shipbuilders in the Albion Dockyard, Bristol in 1980 for Avon River Cruises, and was acquired by the Bristol Packet in the late 1995.
Bagheera is a glass-topped tourist boat, built in Amsterdam in 1973. She was acquired from a company in Ghent, Belgium that offered canal cruises to Antwerp Zoo. She had also worked previously in Switzerland and the Netherlands. [10]
Bristol Hydrogen Boats is a consortium of three companies: Number Seven Boat Trips, Auriga Energy and the Bristol Packet. With aid of a grant of £250,000 from Bristol City Council, they have built a hydrogen powered ferry boat, named Hydrogenesis. This started operations in the spring of 2013 and is claimed to be "Britain's first hydrogen-powered ferry". [11] [12] [13] It operated as a public ferry for 6 months, but fuel was expensive, and the boat was transferred to Bristol Packet for private hire. [14] [15]
The River Severn, at 220 miles (354 km) long, is the longest river in Great Britain. It is also the river with the most voluminous flow of water by far in all of England and Wales, with an average flow rate of 107 m3/s (3,800 cu ft/s) at Apperley, Gloucestershire. It rises in the Cambrian Mountains in mid Wales, at an altitude of 2,001 feet (610 m), on the Plynlimon massif, which lies close to the Ceredigion/Powys border near Llanidloes. The river then flows through Shropshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. The county towns of Shrewsbury, Gloucester and the City of Worcester lie on its course.
The River Avon is a river in the south west of England. To distinguish it from a number of other rivers of the same name, it is often called the Bristol Avon. The name 'Avon' is a cognate of the Welsh word afon, meaning 'river'.
A paddle steamer is a steamship or steamboat powered by a steam engine that drives paddle wheels to propel the craft through the water. In antiquity, paddle wheelers followed the development of poles, oars and sails, where the first uses were wheelers driven by animals or humans.
A horse-drawn boat or tow-boat is a historic boat operating on a canal, pulled by a horse walking beside the canal on a towpath.
Bristol Harbour is the harbour in the city of Bristol, England. The harbour covers an area of 70 acres. It is the former natural tidal river Avon through the city but was made into its current form in 1809 when the tide was prevented from going out permanently. A tidal by-pass was dug for 2 miles through the fields of Bedminster for the river, known as the "River Avon New Cut", "New Cut", or simply "The Cut". It is often called the Floating Harbour as the water level remains constant and it is not affected by the state of the tide on the river in the Avon Gorge, The New Cut or the natural river southeast of Temple Meads to its source.
The PS Medway Queen is a paddle driven steamship, the only mobile estuary paddle steamer left in the United Kingdom. She was one of the "little ships of Dunkirk", making a record seven trips and rescuing 7000 men in the evacuation of Dunkirk.
The Frome, historically the Froom, is a river that rises in Dodington Park, South Gloucestershire, and flows southwesterly through Bristol, joining the former course of the river Avon in Bristol's Floating Harbour. It is approximately 20 miles (32 km) long, and the mean flow at Frenchay is 60 cubic feet per second (1.7 m3/s). The name Frome is shared with several other rivers in South West England and means 'fair, fine, brisk'. The river is known locally in east Bristol as the Danny.
Bristol Ferry Boats is a brand of water bus services operating around Bristol Harbour in the centre of the English city of Bristol, using a fleet of distinctive yellow and blue painted ferry boats. The services were formerly owned by the Bristol Ferry Boat Company, but are now the responsibility of Bristol Community Ferry Boats, a community interest company that acquired the fleet of the previous company.
Belle of Louisville is a steamboat owned and operated by the city of Louisville, Kentucky, and moored at its downtown wharf next to the Riverfront Plaza/Belvedere during its annual operational period. The steamboat claims itself the "most widely traveled river steamboat in American history." Belle of Louisville's offices are aboard Mayor Andrew Broaddus, and also appears on the list of National Historic Landmarks.
Hotwells is a district of the English port city of Bristol. It is located to the south of and below the high ground of Clifton, and directly to the north of the Floating Harbour. The southern entrance to the Avon Gorge, which connects the docks to the sea, lies at the western end of Hotwells. The eastern end of the area is at the roundabout where Jacobs Well Road meets Hotwell Road. Hotwells is split between the city wards of Clifton, and Hotwells and Harbourside.
Netham Lock is the point at Netham in Bristol at which boats from the River Avon, acting as part of the Kennet and Avon Canal, gain access to Bristol's Floating Harbour.
The Bristol Classic Boat Company is a boat building and restoration company based at Bristol's Floating Harbour, England.
SS Ste. Claire is a steamer located in Detroit, Michigan. Built in 1910, she was one of the last propeller-driven excursion steamers to be operated on the Great Lakes. She was declared a US National Historic Landmark in 1992. In 2018, a devastating fire destroyed the upper decks, leaving only the steel structure.
The New Cut is an artificial waterway which was constructed between 1804 and 1809 to divert the tidal river Avon through south and east Bristol, England. This was part of the process of constructing Bristol's Floating Harbour, under the supervision of engineer William Jessop. The cut runs from Totterdown Basin at the eastern end of St Phillip's Marsh, near Temple Meads, to the Underfall sluices at Rownham in Hotwells and rejoining the original course of the tidal Avon.
The MV Karina is a single screw passenger vessel, which formerly operated from Douglas, Isle of Man for the Laxey Towing Company. She operated on a selection of cruises along the Manx coast. She is registered on the National Register of Historic Vessels, certificate number 1893.
RML 497 is a former Royal Navy Fairmile B motor launch from World War II. She was named Western Lady III on her entry to civilian service, as a passenger motor vessel for Western Lady Ferry Service. From 2009 to 2015, she operated as The Fairmile for Greenway Ferry on their day cruise route from Torquay and Brixham to Dartmouth and Greenway. In May 2013, she was returned to her original wartime appearance. Torbay's "ferry wars" forced her removal from service, and in December 2015, RML 497 was acquired by the National Museum of the Royal Navy.
Hornblower Cruises & Events NOW City Experiences is a San Francisco-based charter yacht, dining cruise and ferry service company.
A tour boat is a boat used, and frequently purpose-built or adapted, for boat tours, a type of tourism frequently offered in much visited towns and cities of historic interest, that have canals or a river running through it, or that lie on a coast or a lake.
Steamboat services started on the Thames in around 1815 and for nearly 25 years were the main use of steam to carry passengers before the emergence of railways in the south of England. During this time at least 80 steamers are recorded in the Thames and the Steamboat Act of 1819 became the first statute to regulate the safety of the new technology for the public. Wooden boats driven by paddle-wheels, they managed during this time to establish themselves as faster and more reliable than the earlier use of sailing and rowing boats for passenger transport within the Thames estuary.
Tower Belle is a passenger boat based in Bristol Harbour in England. The vessel is operated by the Bristol Packet Boat Trips company on pleasure and educational trips in the City Docks, on the River Avon to the Chequers Inn at Hanham Lock and Beese's Tea Gardens at Conham. Tower Belle was built in 1920 in Newcastle upon Tyne by Armstrong Whitworth, originally known as Wincomblee. In the 1950s and 1960s she worked in London, finally coming to Bristol in 1976.
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