182 REPORT— 1875. 



accommodation for the port soon began to be added the opinion that the high 

 charges of the Dock Company tended still further to restrict the trade. Much 

 local agitatiou ensued, ending in the transfer of the docks (in 1848) from the 

 Company to the Corporation of Eristol. They at once resolved to make an 

 alteration in one of their entrance-locks, so as to accommodate steamers of 

 the ' Great Western ' and ' Great Britain ' class, built in Bristol. A new lock 

 sufficiently wide to admit these was constructed, on the site of a smaller lock 

 at Cumberland Basin, by the late Mr. Brunei. In this lock may be seen the 

 earliest examples of lock-gates made in the form of caissons. 



The first act of the Corporation, on taking over the docks, was to reduce 

 the dues ; and from this cause, as well as also partly from the port sharing 

 in the general increase of trade thi'oughout the country, the dock revenues 

 began to amend. Just about the same time the dimensions of steamers were 

 vastly increasing, and an increased desire was felt here that the port of Bristol 

 should have accommodation for them. It was not so much a want of dock- 

 space in the floating harbour that was felt, as the difficulties arising fi-om the 

 tortuous course of and want of depth in the river, and also the limits placed 

 on the breadth of vessels by the lock entering the harbour. Some improve- 

 ments were made in the river, and several schemes for more extensive 

 alterations considered. Various designs for independent docks at Portis- 

 head and on the Gloucestershii-e side of the Avon were also brought forth, 

 the one on the most extensive scale being by the late Mr. J. M. llendel in 

 1852. 



Amongst other modes proposed for providing for the largest class of ocean- 

 going steamers was that of placing a dam, with suitable entrance-locks and 

 works, at the mouth of the Avon, so as to form the channel of the river into 

 an extension of the present floating harbour, entirely supplied with land- 

 water, and having facilities for admitting ordinary vessels at almost all states 

 of the tide. After long consideration of the subject, and maldng tidal and 

 other observations bearing upon the question of its feasibility, the author 

 laid before the Corporation, in 1859, the particulars of a design which he con- 

 sidered could be practically and safelj' carried out, and which, while it would 

 have given to Bristol all she could need for any extension of trade, would 

 not, in his opinion, have been detrimental to the navigation of the Severn 

 estuaiy or to any national interest. Further, it was obvious that by keeping 

 tlie whole of the trade of the port under one jurisdiction, with due responsi- 

 bilities, means would have been available for affording that artificial aid to 

 the maintenance of the roadstead, and for the regulation of a good channel 

 through it, which successive surveys show to be increasingly desirable. These 

 opinions have not been altered by more recent observations of the local con- 

 ditions of the case, nor by an unprejudiced consideration of the various argu- 

 ments which have been advanced against the idea. 



In venturing to propose such a plan, full recognition was given to the 

 general axiom, that the abstraction or suppression of the tidal water of an 

 estuary or harbour is undesirable. But every case must be judged on its 

 own merits ; and investigation of this led to the conviction that it would 

 not, as regards the Severn, bo so much a case of abstraction as of partial 

 restoration. It is probable that the momentum of the tidal wave, which we 

 have in a former part of this paper seen coming up to Kingroad, would not 

 be reduced nor the rise of tide there lessened, whether the consequent flow 

 of the water were drawn off up the Avon, or left to flow on chi'cctly up the 

 Severn. Moreover, it was held likely that this diversion, ijistead of bene- 



